Inclusive Practices in Nigeria: Issues and Barriers

Abstract

Inclusive practices in Nigeria is still a continuous process. Inclusive practices in Nigeria stipulate that all individuals, regardless of their background, culture, language, or abilities, have equal access to opportunities and resources which will inculcate requisite knowledge and survival skills in the society.  Inclusive education policy allows children with disabilities to be educated alongside all other children in their community but there are lots of impediments. Hence, this paper examines inclusive education in public schools, issues and barriers to inclusive education in Nigeria.

A mixed-methods approach which is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used to collect data. 4-6 Focus group discussions were conducted with teachers, school administrators, and parents of learners with special needs in the Ogbomoso area of Oyo State, Nigeria. The FGDs will be used to gather in-depth, qualitative data on the experiences, challenges, and perceptions of inclusive education in Nigeria.The population comprised one hundred teachers both in regular schools and in special schools in the Ogbomoso South and North areas of Oyo State. Two research questions guided this study while the instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire titled “Inclusive Practices in Nigeria: Issue and Barriers”. The sampling population was made through a purposive sampling technique. Thematic analysis, frequency count and simple percentage were used to generate and analyse data. The results revealed that many regular education teachers feel unprepared and fearful to work with learners with disabilities because they believe it could lead to lower academic standards. The unavailability of adequate resources and special support availability is also a barrier to the integration of persons with special needs in their school. Recommendations were made that the government should put inclusion policy in action not in paper and for inclusive education to be realistic in Nigeria all stakeholders should cooperate for integrated services to be delivered.