School factors that affect the provision of quality education to learners with hearing impairments in some selected basic schools of north-western province of Zambia.

The study sought to examine school factors affecting the provision of quality education to the hearing-impaired learners at basic school level in some selected special education schools/units in North-Western province of Zambia. To achieve this purpose, the study focused on teaching and learning resources used to teach the hearing-impaired learners, teaching methods being applied by specialist teachers, availability of specialised equipment, availability of hearing-impaired infrastructure, adequate staffing of specialist teachers, screening of learners, support to specialist teachers by administrators, planning by specialist teachers, guidance and counseling teachers, school administrators and parent teachers’ associations, appointment of school special education coordinators in schools (SENCOs), support from parents of the hearing impaired, monitoring of specialist teachers by both school administrators and standards officers and attitude of parents of the hearing-impaired towards the education of the hearing impaired learners. A descriptive research design using qualitative and quantitative research techniques was employed. Structured/semi structured Questionnaires, interviews and a checklist were used to collect data from different respondents. A target population comprising hearing impaired learners, ordinary teachers, school administrators, specialist teachers, guidance and counselling teachers, parents of the hearing impaired learners and parents teachers association executive members were selected using simple random sampling and purposeful sampling. Data was collected using structured/semi-structured questionnaires, interviews and a checklist. Data was analysed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Themes were established from collected data using narratives and direct quotations. Simple graphs, tables and charts were used to record qualitative and quantitative data. Generally the findings revealed that there are many school factors affecting the provision of quality education to hearing impaired learners. These include; lack of teaching and learning resources, poor teaching methods, lack of specialised equipment, lack of hearing impaired infrastructure, inadequate specialist teachers, lack of screening of learners, lack of support to specialist teachers by administrators, lack of planning by specialist teachers, guidance and counseling teachers, school administrators and parent teachers’ associations, non - appointment of school special education coordinators in schools (SENCOs), lack of support from parents of the hearing impaired, lack of monitoring of specialist teachers by both school administrators and standards officers and poor attitude towards the education of the hearing impaired learners by their parents. viii In view of the above findings, the following recommendations are made; there is need for all early graders entering pre-school education and grade to be screened for all disabilities, specialist teachers together with all the stakeholders should be preparing Individualised education Programmes (IEP) for those learners with severe and profound cases, head-teachers should ensure that Guidance and Counselling teachers offer services to all stakeholders, the Ministry of Education should ensure that an alternative Curriculum is developed for learners with severe disabilities and that special education schools and units are provided with the necessary teaching, learning aids, specialised equipment and all other support services. Internal and external monitors should monitor specialist teachers and ensure that they are providing quality education.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Zambia

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Ndonyo, Thomas Mbunji

• Hearing-impairment-- Elementary education

Language dc:language.iso

en

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://dspace.unza.zm/handle/123456789/8211

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.unza.zm:123456789/8211