CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Historically, One of the first special schools in the world was the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris, which was founded in 1784. It was the first school in the world to teach blind students. The first school in U.K, for the Deaf was established 1760.in Edinburgh by Thomas Braidwood, with education for visually impaired people beginning in the Edinburgh and Bristol in 1765.

The history of special education in Colombia can be categorized into three time periods: the period of neglect, the period of diagnosis and planning, and the emergence of special education. The period of planning ran from the years 1978 to the year 1990. The Ministry of Colombia in 1995 implemented a national plan for the development of special education called “Plan Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Education Especial”.

The purposes of the plan was to create a national diagnosis of special education and to initiate programs for individuals with disabilities. In 1994, the Ministry of education put the first law into action to introduce special classes in public schools that include students with disabilities, called Law 115. In 2011, Colombia entered into the Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities, an agreement among the United Nations Education Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO)to protect people who live with disabilities.

The most recent development of special education in Colombia was Article 11 of Law 1618, which was passed in 2013. The law states that “the Ministry of Education will define the policy and regulate the scheme of education for persons with special educational needs, promoting educational access and quality under a system based on inclusion in the educational services”. The Colombian government has also made financial strides into special education, investing over $12.3 million in 2015.

Early effort to educate persons with disabilities in developing countries in general was made by missionaries. Since then, the various governments have become more sensitive and committed. Special schools, classes, units and resource centers have been built. Teacher training facilities have been established locally in some cases, and more teachers have been trained locally and abroad. All these efforts notwithstanding, most developing countries have been caught in the web of international controversy of acceptable approach to effective education of persons with disabilities.

Inclusive education emerged by insisting that all children with special needs be included in the traditional classroom. Before the emergence of the inclusive system, it was the concept of integration or mainstreaming, which was practiced. The concept of integration is based on integrating children with disabilities according to their needs and severity of their conditions. Some children with disabilities could benefit from total integration, while others benefit from units/special class or resource rooms. However since the middle of the nineties, the American system of inclusive education has spread like fire across the world.

Some special needs children with talents in Cameroon and indeed the world over have lived and died without education. Many have also lived and died, unknown and perhaps unwanted, their talents loss of the detriment of the society (Abang, 1981). As it is the case in most developing countries, effective participation of all able bodied individuals is required  for the building and total transformation of their respective societies. This expectation is a bit difficult for persons with special needs due to their handicapping conditions. Educators and laymen alike having recognized the special needs of such children, youths and adults, have designed a number of programs (educational and non educational) to give appropriate assistance in a variety of ways.

Traditional beliefs, customs and attitudes held by different ethnic groups in Cameroon have for a long time influenced the education and socialization of persons with special educational needs, Yuh & Shey (2008). In some parts of the country, children with disabilities were and are still denied their basic rights especially the right to go to school, communicate and interact with peers in spite of global movement towards universalization of access to schooling for all children (world’s conference on education for all, Jomtien, Thailand, 1990; Salamanca conference on special need education, Spain 1994; millennium development goals, 2000). The right to education is clearly stated in the Universal Declaration of human rights (UNESCO, 1946); “everyone has a right to education”. The participants in the world’s conference on education for all re-affirmed the right of all people to education, particularly, Basic education.

“We, the participants in the world’s conference on education for all, reaffirm the right of all people for education. This is the foundation of our determination, singly and together, to ensure education for all… together we call on government, concerned organization and individuals to join in this urgent undertaking. The basic learning needs of all can and must be made…we adopt, therefore, this world’s Declaration on education for all; Meeting Basic Learning Needs and agree on the framework for

Action to Meet Basic needs, to achieve the goals set forth in this declaration”.

The Salamanca conference on ‘Special Needs Education’ held in June 1994 emphasized the need for policy change in the education of people with disabilities. The second goal in the Millennium

Development Goal (MDGs) outlined in the “Millennium Declaration” of September 2000, focuses on ‘Achieving universal primary education’.

Special education in Cameroon began in informal settings, especially in the family circles where some parents and family members of persons with disabilities tried to teach their children like skills, for example, showing the blind child how to wash its hands, and how to move around the home; making signs to a deaf child when communicating with it. Teaching all the children how to count in their local dialects and the use of local currency in buying and selling was also the pre-occupation of most parents in the early days in Cameroon.

The education of children with disabilities in the pre-colonial and colonial period indicates a slow yet steady recognition of the plight encountered by persons with special needs. The British Baptist Missionary Society first introduced western education in Cameroon in 1842. The number of schools remained with few Cameroonians gaining access to formal education.

Catholic and Presbyterian missionary societies, like the Pallotine Fathers, the Mill Hill missionaries and the Basel Mission also made substantial contribution to formal education. By the time German colonial rule was established after 1884, there were already a few Cameroonians who had been educated by the missionaries. With the introduction of Christian education by western missionaries, consideration was given to the well being of persons with disabilities. A small number of children were admitted in mission schools and were taught alongside other children.

Nsamenang (1996) in his sketch in a proposed study of disabilities in Cameroon, points out that historically education and care for children with disabilities was rooted in the community, church and charitable organizations. He argues that these services were organized as a protection consideration, and as an attempt to provide services which public education and training systems were unable to offer. Before 1975, the welfare of persons with disabilities in Cameroon was the responsibility of a unit in the ministry of Health. As a matter of fact and misconception, disability was perceived as a disease and sometimes seen as incurable. The question that most people asked was: How can people who are sick and cannot be cured go to school?

Formal education for children and young adults with disabilities was done mostly in specialized centres with very few attending regular primary schools. The first centre created in 1972 called “ecole specialisee pour Enfants Deficients Auditif-ESEDA (special school for children with Hearing Impairments), Yaounde and L’externat Medico-Pedagogigue-LA COLOMBRE (special school for mentally retarded) Yaounde. These centres were run and managed by religious groups and parents of children with disabilities. With the creation of the Ministry of Social Affairs in 1975, a Department of National Solidarity was established to oversee the wellbeing of persons with disabilities and the very old.

This department, in collaboration with the Ministries of Education has put in some efforts to improve the education of persons with disabilities. Thus, the creation of many privately owned special schools or institution in almost all provinces of the country with some receiving yearly subsidies from the state took effect. Some of these institutions or special schools serve persons with specific disabilities, for example, those with mental retardation, visual and hearing impairments, behavioural disorders, and so on.

Conceptually, The term ‘Special Educational Needs’ is used to describe learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for children to learn than most children of the same age. Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are likely to need extra or different help from that given to other children their age. This help is known as special educational provision. Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, special ed., SEN or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that provides accommodations that address their individual differences, disabilities, and special needs.

Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help individuals with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and in their community which may not be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education (Jennifer, 1997). Attitude as a concept is concerned with an individual way of thinking, acting and behaving. It has very serious implications for the learners, the teacher, the immediate social group with which the individual learner relates and the entire school system.

Our evaluations of attitude objects can be favourable, neutral or unfavourable attitudes are said to have a positive, neutral or negative direction. ). Attitude was one of the affective areas which had been very much studied. An investigation by Ikpaya (1988) into the teachers’ attitude toward special needs children varied significantly. He also found that some teachers had more positive attitude toward gifted children than their normal counterparts. Findings in Nigeria and Zimbabwe reported positive attitude of teachers to students with special needs in mainstreamed public schools (e.g Maunganidze and Kasayira (2002), and Hungwe (2005)

In a study carried out by Mba (1991) on the attitude of teachers toward the inclusion of hard of hearing students in general education classroom; it was revealed that the attitude of teachers indicated hesitancy of the teachers to accept the hard of hearing unless the communication barrier was obviated. Nwazuoke, (2000), and Mittler (2000) observed that many teachers who were in mainstreamed schools appeared to know little or nothing about children with special needs. Bevan-Brown (2000) reported that she had “a whole truck load” of stories about poor attitude and expectations of teachers to children with special needs. She found that many teachers demonstrated negative attitudes to students with special needs in secondary schools. Sadly, this situation negatively affected the education and performance of children with special needs. This was also found to affect these learners’ self-esteem.

Elliot (2008) examined the relationship between teachers’ attitude toward mainstreaming of children with mild to moderate disabilities in physical education settings, and the amount of practice attempts performed, and the levels of success attained by these students compared to their peers without disabilities.

Theoretically, The theoretical implication of this study lies between theories of social model of disability (Mike Oliver, 1990), There are a number of ‘models’ of disability which have been defined over the last few years. The two most frequently mentioned are the ‘social’ and the ‘medical’ models of disability. The medical model of disability views disability as a ‘problem’ that belongs to the disabled individual. It is not seen as an issue to concern anyone other than the individual affected. For example, if a wheelchair using student is unable to get into a building because of some steps, the medical model would suggest that this is because of the wheelchair, rather than the steps.

The social model of disability, in contrast, would see the steps as the disabling barrier. This model draws on the idea that it is society that disables people, through designing everything to meet the needs of the majority of people who are not disabled. There is a recognition within the social model that there is a great deal that society can do to reduce, and ultimately remove, some of these disabling barriers, and that this task is the responsibility of society, rather than the disabled person. These theories have been chosen to lay emphasis on the situation and its accompanied consequences should these children be denied access to education.

Statement of Problem

A higher level of education enables students with special educational needs to get better chances to integrate into society in general, and into employment in particular, so that they may sustain themselves financially with dignity.  The lack of success in including the learners with special educational need could be attributed to different factors such as difference in the attitude of teachers from different subject departments, lack of properly trained educators to teach such learners, inefficient teacher professional development, lack of resources, the lack of research in the field, and poor understanding of the special needs. Therefore, it is pertinent to promote special educational need for the children with disabilities in learning institutions which lead to academic success, and this prompted the study. Various studies point to issues in the teacher’s altitude towards special educational needs, lack of specified trained teachers to teach children with disabilities, the severity of the student’s disability and lack of teachers concern with receiving the proper support from the administration.

It is noted that attitude of teachers from different departments varies towards   special educational needs  of students in Tiko Municipality secondary school is poor, translating to below the total number of the students enrolled. Furthermore, It was observed  that  students  with  special needs complete  secondary  at  a statistically significant lower rate than non-disable peers  indicating that there are issues with their learning not being supported with the use of good Teacher Attitude towards special educational needs, enlarge corridor, a gentle sloping environment to ease movement to their classes. It is against this backdrop that the researcher is interested in investigating the departmental differences in attitudes to special educational needs and their impact on secondary school in Tiko municipality.

Research Objective

General Research Objective

The main research objective is: to examine the departmental differences in attitudes on special educational needs and its impact on secondary school.

Specific Research Objectives

1. To examine the impact of departmental differences in use of assistive technology on students with special need.
2. To examine the impact of departmental differences of altitude of class arrangement and learning on students with special educational need.
3. To examine the impact of departmental differences in attitudes to the use of adaptive teaching strategies on students with special educational needs.

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