ABSTRACT

. The rationale of having inclusive education is to value children with special needs so that they can participate equally in all educational activities alongside their peers without special needs. There should be no form of discrimination, segregation or isolation of children with special needs in provision of education services. They must be given equal opportunity to participate alongside children without special needs. The purpose of this study was in two fold, one, to asses whether the school environment has been modified to accommodate children with special needs and two to establish the number of teachers trained in special needs education and their attitude in teaching children with special needs in an inclusive setting. The main objective of the study was to look into effectiveness of the implementation of inclusive education in Mwingi district. The study used stratified sampling to sample population of 10 head teachers, 2 education officials, 84 teachers, 104 pupils and 20 parents from the area of study. Purposive sampling technique was used to sample schools as day or boarding, private or public, boys or girls, mixed day and boarding. The researcher used questionnaires for teachers, and pupils, observation schedules for physical environment, and interview schedules for head teachers and education officials as instruments of data collection. A pilot study was carried out in the neighbouring Kyuso district to test the reliability of the instruments while the validity was determined by experts from Kenyatta University. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data that was presented in form of graphs, pie charts and frequencies, means and percentages. The study found that although efforts are being made to make implementation of inclusive education successful, there is dire need for clear policy framework on the implementation, training of teachers in special needs education. The government and its development partners need to fund inclusive education programmes. Create awareness to the society as well as developing a curriculum suitable for pupils with special needs in order to implement inclusive education effectively.