Special Vocational Education Needs’ Unit in implementing Inclusive Education to Learners with Disabilities at Vocational Education and Training Authority VETA, Tanzania (A Case Study of MVTTC and VETA Headquarter)

The purpose of this study was to explore the need to establish the Special Vocational Education Needs Unit for implementing Inclusive Education to Trainees at Vocational Education and Training Authority VETA, Tanzania. A survey design applied by this study where the sample of 50 respondents was covered including the Vocational teachers, Vocational teachers trainees and some of the officers at VETA headquarter participated on job training conducted at VETA headquarter. The study employed a simple random sampling technique to ensure an equal opportunity for an individual to be selected and involved in this study as referred to as inferential statistics. Data was collected from a sample of 50 respondents guided by a semi-structured questionnaire with both closed and open-ended questions; Focus group discussion was also applied as and direct researcher's observation. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the data gathered in the field. The descriptive statistical tool used included frequencies, while the inferential statistical tool used was a correlation. The data collected was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The study achieved a response of 50 out of a sample of 57, representing a response rate of 88%. Findings on the need to establish a Special Vocational Education Needs' Unit for the implementation of inclusion of learners at Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA), achieved the response of 50 out of 50 respondents which takes 100% of all responses, 0% of all respondents disagreed and making no single respondent observed differently hence all agreed that there a need to have a unit. The Pearson relation on the experience of teachers in the helping of learners with disabilities; spearman's rank correlation revealed a very strong positive correlation (.021) which suggests that the existing services to learners with disabilities by teachers are based on the experience of those teachers at work but not the expertise they possess about learners with disabilities, most of them have no idea of special needs education while very few determined by themselves to get knowledge from NGOs working with people with disabilities. The study also discovered that there are initiatives done by VETA headquarter in collaboration with SENSE International in 2022 and prepared Guidelines For Inclusion of People With Disabilities in Vocational Education and Training which in turn a Pedagogical Manual for Trainers on Special Needs and Inclusive Vocational Education and Training was developed. Therefore, the Guideline and manual became a catalyst for the establishments of a Unit at VETA headquarter, MVTTC, and Vocational training Centers across the country. This will solve the challenges vocational teachers confront when having learners with special needs in their classes. It is further observed that the area TVET sector in Tanzania is not well researched enough to gain scientific solutions on matters related to vocational education and training, hence more studies need to be conducted in order to come up with best practices for sustainable development of- Vocational Education and Training in Tanzania.