Attitude of teachers towards inclusion of students with learning disabilities in the regular schools in Obio/Akpor local government area

Abstract

The study investigated attitude of teachers towards inclusion of students with learning disabilities in the normal school settings in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. A descriptive survey design was used for the study. Six research questions and six null hypotheses was formulated to guide the study. The population of study involved 3025 teachers in the area. A stratified random sampling technique was used in selecting a sample of three hundred and ninety nine (399) teachers. Chisquare was used in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Out of the 399 teachers, 253 were involved in the study. The result of the findings shows that teachers only teachers training and teacher’s age significantly influence inclusion of students with learning disability whereas teacher’s gender, experience, qualification and marital status had not significant effect on inclusion of students with learning disability. The finding also indicated that generally teachers had positive attitude towards inclusion of students with learning disabilities. The attitude of teachers is perceived to have been influenced by lack of provision for additional programme that will improve education of students with learning difficulties and required training for teachers in special needs education.