THE LEVEL OF STAKEHOLDERS’ AWARENESS ON SUITABLE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS/ STRATEGIES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF LEARNERS WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN REGULAR PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN KAJIADO COUNTY, KENYA

Inclusive education through regular schools for learners with special needs and disabilities has been embraced by many countries worldwide including Kenya. However, a critical look to the management of learners with hearing impairment in the regular primary schools tickled the researcher prompting the current study whose purpose was to investigate the level of stakeholders' awareness on suitable instructional materials for the management of learners with hearing impairment in regular public primary schools in Kajiado County, Central sub-county. The study used mixed methodology for collecting data and adopted embedded design. The target population comprised head teachers, teachers, board of management chairpersons and the District Education Officer in Kajiado central sub-county. The stratified random sampling technique was used to obtain a sample of 20 schools out of a total of 101 regular public primary schools. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 20 head teachers, 20 BOM chairpersons and the DEO while simple random sampling was used to select 117 out of 585 teachers from the schools that were chosen thus making a sample of 158 respondents out of 788 target population. Except for the DEO, twenty percent was applied in all cases to obtain the participants for the study. The study mainly used questionnaires and an interview schedule as tools. The instruments were pre- tested on 20 respondents and the split-half reliability correlation coefficient of 0.7 was used. The validity of the instruments was determined by five experts from Mount Kenya University in which a concurrence inter-rater of 0.6 was used as the threshold. Qualitative data was organized into related key themes and summarized in narratives. Quantitative data was analyzed using the Chi-Square technique with the help of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. The study found the major issues in Kajiado central Sub County as lack of training of stakeholders and inadequate awareness of Special Needs Education/Inclusive Education causing unpreparedness in all the institutions. The study recommended training of the stakeholders and creation of awareness of SNE/IE. Secondly, suitable resources to be availed in the schools.