People with disabilities (PWDs) have always been at the peripheral of formal education programmes. Historically their education has been a result of handouts from benevolent missionaries and NGOs. Studies have shown that people with disabilities if afforded the chance to learn can also perform as well as any able bodied person benefiting and achieving adequate independent living standards (Chimedza and Peters, 2001). Key to meaningful and effective inclusion is the creation and provision of suitable study materials (Modesto and Tau, 2009). This study, therefore, was on how Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) is including PWDs in its programmes specifically focusing on the creation and provision of appropriate study materials. A qualitative survey design using a semi structured interview schedule was used to collect data from Department chairpersons, the Academic registry managers and the Materials Development Unit (MDU) editors. Themes were developed from the collected data and analysed. The findings show that ZOU is including PWDs but is facing problems of developing and providing adequate study materials for some disabilities. The study recommends that disability specialists be involved in the creation and development of study materials both in print and electronically. Collaboration with organization of and for people with disabilities and other Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions will help bring critical expertise together to improve the inclusion of many PWDs into ODL.

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The study sought to find out the challenges and opportunities posed by the current curriculum when including learners with conduct disorders in mainstream primary schools in Nkayi District in Zimbabwe. Using a qualitative approach focusing on a case study design data was generated from Fifteen participants (1 school head, 4 mainstream teachers, and 10 learners with conduct disorder) were purposively selected. All participants were interviewed individually. Theme identification methods were used to analyse data. The findings showed that all students showing signs of conduct disorder were mostly taught by regular class teachers in the mainstream. Despite having mainstream teachers and a specialist teacher, learners with conduct disorders could not perform well in their academic work as all mainstream teachers were not conversant with ways of identifying and managing learners with conduct disorders in primary school. It was revealed that there was a lack of proper guidance and counselling and parental involvement in dealing with learners with conduct disorders. Learners with conduct disorders were socially included but were academically excluded because of lack of measures to manage learners with conduct disorders for them to access the academic curriculum in the primary schools. For learners with conduct disorders to fully access the curriculum, this study recommended that teachers should be fully capacitated to manage learners with conduct disorders, reduced teacher-pupil ratio in primary schools, involve parents in the management of learners with conduct disorders and capacitate school guidance and counsellors.

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The Dakar World Education Conference (2000) committed governments to ensure that their education systems are inclusive and specifically cater for the needs of disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalized learners. For Zambia as one of the developing countries, in its Persons with disability Act of 2012, it affirms the government's commitment for persons with disabilities to access an inclusive, quality and free primary, secondary and higher education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live. The debates on how best to prepare pre-service teachers for diverse, inclusive classrooms have led to some teacher educators working more closely with schools in trialing new approaches. In this discourse, we explore literature on preparation of pre-service teachers in inclusive pedagogies worldwide. Emerging from this study is the strong emphasis on inclusive pedagogy with a bias on improving the quality of mainstream education and addressing educational inequality among others. The findings contribute to inclusive education policy development in institutions of higher learning and pedagogical practices among others. The study further adds on to scanty literature on inclusive education pedagogies.