Towards an exclusive curriculum for pupils with disabilities in regular schools in Ghana
Keywords:
adaptations, disability, curriculum, inclusion, assessment, regular schoolsAbstract
In order to achieve successful inclusion of pupils with disabilities in regular schools, there is the need for the adaptation of the school curriculum. The understanding is that teachers are supposed to be aware of this diversity of children in the classroom and make provisions to satisfy the needs of these children with special needs. This study, however, has observed that, at Yilo Krobo district that, since 2009/2010 academic year, these requirements are mostly not available in regular schools where pupils with disabilities find themselves. The curriculum to which these children are exposed to is purposefully developed for the “normal” children with no adaptations and modifications to meet the needs of the children living with disability. This study adopted a cross-sectional design. A sample of 90 participants from 13 primary schools was selected using a simple random sampling technique. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics to calculate frequencies and their corresponding percentage value. Findings from the study were: a high proportion of the respondents (50.1%) stated that, the content of the curriculum is not adapted to suit pupils with disabilities in regular schools. Based on the findings it was recommended that in-service training workshops should be organised for teachers to adapt the curriculum so as to enable pupils with disabilities participate in the teaching and learning process.
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