An Investigation of the Perception of Teachers towards Inclusion of Children with Visual Impairment in the Regular UBE Classrooms: Evidence from South-South Nigeria

Globally, inclusive education has been identified as the most effective means of providing education for children with special needs including those with visual impairment. Unfortunately, in most countries such as Nigeria, inclusive education has been negatively affected by the attitude of teachers towards children with disabilities and their education. The objective of this study was to find out the relationship between the independent variables knowledge and attitude and the dependent variable inclusion of children with visual impairment . The study covered the south south geopolitical zone of Nigeria including Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo and Rivers. By using stratified sampling technique, four local government areas were selected from each state, and five schools from each local government area. The sample for the study comprised one thousand and forty five 1,045 male and female teachers in regular primary schools across the states. Inferential statistics of Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to determine the significant relationship in the stated research questions. The result revealed that there was significant relationship between the independent variables Teachers' knowledge, perception and attitude and inclusion of students with visual impairment. Inclusive education has strong correlation with Knowledge r = 0.685, P 0.05 , with Perception r = 0.812, P 0.05 and Attitude r = 0.255, P 0.05 , at 0.05 level of significance. The findings from this study will help the stakeholders in inclusive education to improve the educational system of the children with disabilities by promoting the rapport between teachers and their students. Francesca Uche-Ezekiel Uko "An Investigation of the Perception of Teachers towards Inclusion of Children with Visual Impairment in the Regular UBE Classrooms: Evidence from South-South Nigeria" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-1 , December 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd29718.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/education/29718/an-investigation-of-the-perception-of-teachers-towards-inclusion-of-children-with-visual-impairment-in-the-regular-ube-classrooms-evidence-from-south-south-nigeria/francesca-uche-ezekiel-uko