Approaches Taken to Ensure Intellectually Impaired Pupils Receive Basic Primary Education at Patandi Primary School Meru District, Arusha Tanzania

Abstract

The study focused on formative evaluation on Approaches Taken to Ensure Intellectually Impaired Pupils Receive Basic Primary Education at Patandi Primary School Meru District, Arusha Tanzania. This study was guided one evaluation question. This study employed case study design under qualitative research approach where non-Probability sampling techniques were employed. The evaluation study seeks to evaluate the approaches taken to ensure that intellectually impaired pupils receive basic primary education at Patandi primary school. The respondents of this question are the District Education Officer, the ward education officer, the project coordinator and teachers who teach the intellectual impaired pupils at Patandi Primary School. The instruments of collecting data included, Interview guide for teachers, Interview guide to the project coordinator, Interview guide for the District Education Officer (DEO), Interview guide for ward educational officer and observation guide for pupils. Document analysis guide was used to obtain more information about the school. The data was collected and coded, organized, analysed under qualitative approach, then the relevant information was extracted, interpreted and discussed. The evaluator provided the instruments to two lecturers of Mwenge Catholic University who are experts of evaluation from education field to check the extent to which the instruments reflect the evaluation questions and the problem ad their recommendations were considered. The evaluator employed triangulation method for all evaluation instruments to ensure consistence of the information provided by the respondents by making comparison of the information that will be provided. Piloting of instruments carried out in one primary school which offers special education for intellectually impaired pupils in Moshi Municipality. The respondents of the theme under question one are; District education officer, ward education officer, project coordinator and the all 4 teachers who teaches pupils with intellectual impairment. The approaches including announcements and assessment of a child individually and registering a child as a pupil of Patandi Special Education primary school in stage one, stage two or Autism. The conclusion of this study showed that the youngsters with mental disabilities should be enrolled to school to acquire education on basic knowledge that could help them in their daily life. The recommendations showed that Parents/Guardians should be educated on Intellectual impairments that is not caused by superstitions but it is health/intellectual problem of a child. The government should increase number of Special Needs Educational Teachers and motivate them.