An investigation on Factors Influencing Education for Children with Mental Retardation in Kibaha Town Council
The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing access to education for children with mental retardation in public primary schools Kibaha Town council with a view to: identify factors influencing access to education for mental retardation, examine the influence of teaching and learning materials for teaching pupils with mental retardation, examine community attitudes toward children with mental retardation, assess influence of quality teachers for teaching children with mental retardation to investigate teachers views on managing teaching children with mental retardation. The study followed a case study design whereby quantitative and qualitative approaches were the major means of data collection and analyses. The data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and observation. The study involved three public primary schools with special needs and about 45 respondents were involved. Primary school head teachers and teachers with special needs were randomly selected to respond to questionnaires, while parents, district education officers, education inspectors and Ward education officers were purposively selected to participate in interview sessions. Pre- testing of the instruments was conducted twice in two primary schools within an interval of one week but those schools were not involved in the sample of study. The study revealed that most public primary schools with special needs had deficit of teaching and learning materials for mental retardation, as well as lack of enough trained teachers in mental retardation, community perceive positive toward children with mental retardation, poor access of mental retarded and teachers managed the class properly.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations