Analysis of Inclusion for Persons with Disabilities within Learning Institutions of Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

Disability as a concept has been evolving mainly driven by results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers, a perspective that has received some level of consensus anchored around the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRP). Whereas the Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education calls for inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030; emphasis being on inclusion and equity as a basis for laying foundations for quality education and learning, this remains a mirage in most developing economies, Kenya included. The UN encouragement of Countries to provide infrastructure which guarantee inclusion and equity in and through education systems and programs is yet to be empirically demonstrated and documented. Scanty empirical studies exist on this aspect hence the need for the study on disability inclusion within learning institutions of Bungoma County, Kenya. The study utilized a conceptual Framework as designed by the UN: international normative frameworks relevant for the achievement of SDG 4 for persons with disabilities. The study utilized the cross sectional survey design, where the researcher investigated the population of learners by selecting samples from learning institutions to discover and analyze level of inclusivity. The study area comprised basic education sector and higher education sector within Bungoma County. The study found that in spite of an upsurge in enrolment of teachers training in special needs education, those available in the education sector are still too few hence continued neglect on inclusivity of PLWD in learning institutions in the study area, which could be true across the country Kenya. Further, in both the basic education schools and the university set up, emotional and behavioural disabilities were ranked numbers one and two respectively in terms of being a challenge and limited strategies of inclusivity for this cadre of PLWD within education ecosystem. There is serious need for deliberate effort to marshal resources and strategies to address this type of disability across the education learning continuum.