International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue VIII, August 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Barriers of inclusive education to learners with visual impairment in an inclusive classroom setting: the experiences of teachers and visually impaired learners in Sefula, Mongu Zambia.

Joe Kachong’u Zangi, Dr Penda Annie
Kwame Nkrumah University, P.O.BOX 48 404 Kabwe Zambia

Abstract: This study focused on barriers of inclusive education to learners with visual impairment in an inclusive setting: the experiences of teachers and visually impaired learners in Sefula in Zambia. A qualitative research method was used to collect data in an inclusive environment at Sefula Combined School and Sefula Secondary School in Mongu district. The total sample for the study was 12 participants comprising 6 learners with visual impairment, 4 subject teachers and 2 administrators. Purposive sampling was applied in the selection of the participants. The study found that school administrators, teachers and visually impaired learners welcomed inclusive education with both hands and were doing their level best to implement it. However, administrators, teachers and learners with visual impairment experienced a number of challenges’ which extended from infrastructure, teaching methods, less time allocated to teaching and learning in class, lack of teaching and learning resources and lack of specialized teachers to handle learners with visual impairment in an inclusive setting. The study also brought out a few strategies being employed by teachers in class in order to help the visually impaired learners benefit in an inclusive classroom.

I. BACKGROUND

The study investigated the barriers of inclusive education to learners with visual impairment and teachers in an inclusive setting in Sefula, Mongu. The Ministry of General Education in Zambia is encouraging and supporting schools to practice inclusive education as a way of delivering effective education to all the learners without leaving any learner behind. According to the Salamanca framework of (1996), regular schools with inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all; moreover, they provide an effective education to the majority of children and improve the efficiency and ultimately the cost-effectiveness of the entire education system.
According to Hayhoe (2012), the National Health Service in England renewed its definition of visual impairment “There has been a change in the terminology of the registers, blind and partial sight which is expressed as severely sight impaired (blind) and sight impaired (partially sighted). This change was lobbied for by service users/patients as it is more accurately describes their situation as people who may be