CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Teachers are referred to as a body of individuals who are equipped and have the proficiency, competences and professional skills to meet the requirements of learners with diverse challenges.  Teacher’s awareness of education can be demonstrated by their actions or activities through their professional, pedagogic and teaching skills in the classroom.

Teaching skills of a teacher will include the techniques, approaches and even strategies to be employed upon the diversities that exist.  It includes effective classroom management skills, preparation and use of instructional materials and communication skills.  With the pedagogic skills, teachers are able to produce the philosophical, sociological and psychological aspects needed in an inclusive classroom.  Professional skills of a teacher will be the acquisition of counseling, interpersonal, computer, and information retrieving and management skills (Lambe and Bones, 2006).

Inclusive education is essentially a program that enables learners with or without disabilities to participate in a learning environment. Inclusive education came as rescue mission in the actualization of educational and psychosocial services for persons with visual impairments and other diversities of abnormalities. In fact, inclusive education (IE) is when all students, regardless of their ability are placed in age appropriate general education classes in schools in their own neighborhood to receive high quality instruction, interventions and support that enables them to be successful in the classroom. It should be noted that inclusive education is a human right.  Some features of inclusive education inclusive; a strong leadership, natural proportions and assistant.

Visual impairment also known as vision loss or vision impairment is a decreased ability to see to a degree that causes problems not fixable by usual means such as glasses.  The term visual impairment refers to three groups of learners.  Firstly, learners who are blind, with low vision and the last group include; children who have some difficulties with seeing but can see perfectly if they are provided with a customized pair of glasses.  These children however, need to have their visual needs meet.

With visual impairment it should be known that when parts of the eyes such as; the eye lids, cornea, pupil, lens, retina optic nerve, conjunctiva and so on are infected, they do not function properly.  As a result it may lead to some dysfunctions or eye defects such as; glaucoma, trachoma, cataract, refractive error, prebyopia, onchocerciasis or river blindness and vitamin A deficiency (F. V. Wiafe 2007)

In case where the vision of a learner becomes blur and learners can’t see either the distant or nearby objects clearly and comfortably; the learner is said to have a defect of vision.  The defects of vision are also called defects of eye.

There are three common defects of vision or defects of eye.  These are, myopia (short – sightedness or near sightedness), hypermetropia (long-sightedness or far sightedness) and presbyopia.  They are caused by the incorrect refraction of light rays by the eye lens.

Myopia (or short sightedness) is that defect in which a learner is unable to see distant objects clearly.  Myopia is however, is caused by high converging power of eye-lens because of its short focal length is also caused by the eye-ball being to long. Below is the diagram showing the defect of vision called myopia.

Again, there exists a second eye defect called hypermetropia (long-sightedness or far sightedness).  This is that defect in which a learner can’t see nearby objects clearly.  For example, a learner having this defect cannot read a book clearly.  Hypermetropia is caused by low converging power of eye lens (because of its large focal length).  Again, it is caused by the eyeball being too short. (F. V. Wiafe, 2007)

Presbyopia which is also an eye defect is mostly common with old age.  This is because of the celiary muscles becoming weak and the eye lens becoming inflexible.  It is that eye defect in which learners of old age cannot see nearby objects clearly.  This is due to lose of power of accommodation. (F. V. Wiafe 2007).

The above eye defects are scientific. There equally occur a natural way of incurring eye defect which is the attachment of eye lashes mostly done by ladies this days all in the name of fashion, looking more beautify, attractive but this indirectly destroys their natural lashes. False eye lashes can put a learner’s vision at risk.  Any time a foreign object is placed near the eye there is a potential for the occurrence of an eye defect.  The problems associated with fake eye lashes, infection, and allergic reactions and damaged to their natural lashes.

The inclusion of learners with visual impairment was simply the collaboration of special educators who came together to produce special designs instructions and supplementary aids and services to help with their learning and for them to achieve like any of their normal peers.

Inclusive education is when all students, regardless of their ability are placed in age-appropriate general education classes in schools in their own neighborhood to receive high quality instruction, interventions, and support that enables them to be successful in the classroom.  Inclusive education is the education for human rights. With inclusion, there are important features which are highly recommended; such as; giving extra time to the special needs children availability of professionals, materials, and provisions of adequate assistive devices.

Historically, 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.

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 centers with very few attending regular primary schools.

The first center created in 1972 called “ecole specialisee pour Enfants Deficient Auditif-ESEDA (special school for children with Hearing Impairments), Yaoundé and L’externat Medico-Pedagogigue-LA COLOMBRE (special school for mentally retarded) Yaoundé. These canters 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 well-being 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, behavioral disorders, and so on. Others provide services to persons with multiple disabilities. To train young Cameroonians with visual impairments in arts and crafts, the ministry of Social Affairs created the Rehabilitation Institute for the Blind (RIB) popularly known as Bulu Centre for the Blind in Buea.

This was the first institution for persons with disabilities created by the government in Cameroon in 1973. It is under the control of the Ministry of Social Affairs. More private institutions have been established in recent years, but most of them are in urban areas. It is worth noting that nearly all these institutions, whether owned by government, Mission or NGOs have problems of shortage of trained and qualified staff and personnel to serve the persons with disabilities. (AJS, 2008) Legislation and policy on education of persons with visual impairment lack a lot of reinforcement, which could help in the remediation of their day to day problems. The only Law in Cameroon, which addresses the needs of persons with visual impairment, is law No. 83/13 of July, 1983 relating to the protection of persons with disabilities. The conditions for implementing this law are laid down in decree No.90/1516 of 26 November, 1990. These two documents form a foundation stone for a strong government policy toward the education of persons with disabilities.

Article 3 of law No. 83/13 of July 1983 focuses on the education of children with disabilities. Three options are given concerning the type of education to be given this group of children. These include: Integration in ordinary schools: parents of children with disabilities are advised to send them to regular schools. This integrated approach calls for specialized staff to be recruited to serve the needs of children with disabilities in regular schools, and also the provision of appropriate pedagogic material.

Admission in special classes: some parents who seek admission for children with disabilities in regular schools are advised to place them in special classes. This is seen as a temporary solution in the sense that the specialized training adapted to the child’s ability in such classes only prepares him/her for eventual admission in a regular class. Admission in specialized institutions: in this case, the child with disability is admitted in a specialized institution where he/she receives special education as well as medical care and treatment.

Since the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975 and revision to the legislation in 2004 (IDEA, U.S. Department of Education, 2004), special education students must be instructed in classrooms with students without disabilities (Kilanowski-Press, Foote, & Rinaldo, 2010). The IDEA legislation assists students with exceptional needs by providing for a proper education at no cost and providing services that prepare students for the work force and autonomous living based on their individual needs (Casale-Giannola, 2012). Under IDEA, students with disabilities (SWD) receive individualized plans of instruction (IEPs), which include parental participation during the inclusion process when decisions are made about how students who have special needs will be educated in general educational classroom settings (Grenier, 2010). Increasing enrollment of SWD also means an increase of SWD expected to show academic progress. If SWD do not demonstrate academic growth, districts across the country will face penalties from the U.S. government (Kaufman & Blewett, 2012).

In an intensive observational study, smith and Geoffrey utilized the concept of teachers awareness to interprete some of their data, the concept was defined as a dimension of teacher behavior in which the teacher knows information important in the group member lives and indicate his knowledge to the group. Both teacher educators and student teachers agree on the importance of work with support staff to ensure inclusion.

They also have high regard for: teacher competences for interpersonal relationships with students and their families; recognizing and respecting cultural and individual differences; understanding different values held by students and their families; awareness of their own preconceptions and value stances; ability to recognize the specific needs of students; encouraging intercultural respect and understanding among pupils; and maintaining high expectations regardless of student background. However, while teacher educators see these competences being acquired at an average or above average level in teacher education programmes, student teachers tend to respond less positively, indicating that their grasp of the competences is not secure.

School teachers also strongly asserted that existing curricula for student teachers fall far short of preparing them for inclusive schools. In their view, the curricula concentrate on content rather than skills and values. The courses are very intensive and rigid, and do not allow the prospective teachers to reach their full potential. The mentoring system established during student teaching practices does not seem to work well either.

Statement of the Problem

A higher level of education enables students with visual impairment 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 promotion of inclusive learning environment for visual impairment in learning institutions lead to academic success. This is because the children with visual impairment are properly handled and the teachers are aware of their disabilities.

The lack of success in including the learners with visual impairment could be attributed to different factors such as 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 visual impairment. It is a serious issue that the numbers of students with visual impairments   participating in secondary education are minimal.

It is noted that participation of students with visual impairment (SVI) in the learning activities in Buea Sub-division secondary school is poor, translating to below the total number of the students enrolled. Various  studies  point  to  issues  in  the teachers altitude towards inclusion and participation  of  students with visual impairment   in  secondary  education, the severity of the students disability and lack of teachers concern with receiving the proper support from the administration.

In the Buea municipality, inclusive education for people with visual impaired children seems to be almost impossible, it is  observed  that  students  with  visual impairment  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 Rams, enlarge corridor, a gentle sloping environment to ease movement to their classes .  It is against this backdrop that the researcher is interested in investigated teacher’s awareness on inclusive classroom practices and the effective inclusion of learning on students with visual impairment in some selected secondary schools in Buea municipality Fako Sub-division.

Objectives of the Study

General objective

To examine the effect of teachers’ awareness of inclusive classroom practices and the inclusion of learners with visual impairment in Buea municipality

Specific Objectives

1. To find out teacher’s knowledge on the use of assistive technology and it effect on inclusion of learners with visual impaired in the Buea municipality.
2. To find out teacher’s knowledge on classroom management and it effect on inclusion of learners with visual impaired in the Buea municipality.
3. To find out teacher’s knowledge on the use of adaptive teaching strategies and it effect on inclusion of learners with visual impaired in the Buea municipality.

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