INNOVATIONS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION IN NIGERIA, Ebele C. Okigbo, Nneka R. Nnorom, Ernest O. Onwukwe [best reads .TXT] 📗

make this vision a reality for many children with disabilities.

Friendship development: schools are important places for children to develop friendships and learn social skills, children with and without disabilities learn with and from each other in inclusive classroom.

Children learn important academic skills: In inclusive classrooms, children with and without disabilities are expected to learn to read, write and do mathematics. With higher expectations and good instruction, children with disabilities learn academic skills.

Children develop a positive understanding of themselves and others: when children attend classes that reflect the similarities and differences of in the real world, they learn to appreciate diversity. respect and understanding glow when children of different abilities and cultures play and learn together.

All children learn by being together: because the philosophy of inclusive education is aimed at helping all children learn at their own pace and style within a monitoring learning environment.

 

In-Service Training Programme for Teachers in Inclusive Education.

 

The role of teacher in inclusive system of any country cannot be over-emphasized. In fact, the teacher is more important than any other personnel in school system because the quality of whatever learning outcome is transferred depends on him. It is therefore of paramount importance that teachers are well prepared to acquire the skills that will enable them engage in inclusive education. If inadequately prepared, teachers cannot function effectively in this regard. No wonder Shade and Stewart (2001) observed that teachers report frustration, burden, fear and inadequacies because they do not believe that they have the abilities to meet the individual needs of the children with special needs in their classrooms. This is because their professional skills and techniques were not developed since in most cases, they entered the work-force of inclusive setting not well prepared. It is therefore, very necessary that teachers in general especially Nigerian teachers should be regularly exposed to in-service training to enhance their teaching performance especially for inclusive classrooms. Hence, as opined by Omede and Danladi (2016), teachers need training about inclusive principles and basics of disabilities to ensure that disabled children are not prevented from gaining equal access to the curriculum. Training should be on-going especially in batches and in local environment preferably their own schools. It should take place at both pre- and in-service stages for inclusive education to be effective. There is need to prepare adequately both the pre- and in-service teachers professionally so as to equip then for and update their knowledge, proficiency and skill in other to meet up with the needs and aspiration of a diverse school population. There is also need to provide teachers with facilities needed to teach these children with special needs as well as restructure schools for a successful inclusive practice. To implement this inclusion properly, some teachers who have the aptitude should be professionally trained to serve as consultants to other teachers who will only be given generalized training in this area. These special teachers should be saddled with the duty of playing the following roles:

Identify those children that need special attention

Strive to study and understand their needs and acquire knowledge about the best instructional technique or approach to use in teaching them

Plan lessons to suit their needs, accommodating them without making them feel dejected and inferior

Should try to acquire basic knowledge on the type of equipment usually used in teaching these children

Act as guidance counselors for these children and also for their parents and guardians

Assist in developing curriculum for such children

Serve as resource persons and consultants for regular school teachers who are involved with educating these children with special needs

Serve as therapists diagnosing causes of failures or problems whether psychological, educational, environmental or organic and tailor course contents to suit individuals understanding

Should act as interpreters, audiologists, sign language interpreters and so on

Should defend those children in legislative matters, organizing workshops, seminars and conferences on behalf of these children (Iheanacho in Christopher and Elizabeth, 2012).

Problems faced by Students with Disabilities in Nigeria

Despite its laudable aims and objectives and regardless of the fact that nations all over the world are eager to embrace it, inclusive education is faced with a host of problems. Some of these problems are; inferiority complex, lack of understanding, adjustment problems, isolation and segregation, lagging behind by challenged students, feeling of extra burden, insecurity, lack of expression, introverted nature, negative approach and shyness.

Challenges faced by Teachers involved in Inclusive Education

In Nigeria particularly, the under listed also cause a lot of challenges to full implementation of inclusive education:

Culture and people’s perception regarding inclusive education: These people could be parents, guardians or even the society at large. According to Ahmed (2001), in Nigeria, despite genuine efforts to educate children with disabilities in public schools, a substantial number of them are still suffering from neglects due to societal misconceptions, insufficient resources, manpower and funding

Overcrowded classrooms: Teachers find it difficult to select adequate methodologies that will address the needs these children as well as those of normal children when put in the same classroom setting. Large classroom further makes it difficult to attend adequately to these children.

Availability: It is difficult for the teachers to be available to those students as they will need him at different times, in different situations and for different purposes. He may need to put in extra time. Making the classroom more challenging may make disabled children feel bad especially when it comes to presentations, debates, projects and sports.

 

The Way Forward

Nigeria is a multi-cultural nation with several different ethnic groups. This often makes implementation of any policy such as inclusive education a bit difficult. This project though laudable enough and its benefit to the development of Nigeria as a country notwithstanding, has not been fully implemented in Nigeria. For its full implementation, all hands need to be on deck to get Nigerian citizens accept and accommodate the idea. The government has an enormous role to play in this regard, since it is the only through this means that we can dare to boast of striving for advancement like other nations. For Nigeria to move forward, we must break the yoke of misconceptions that plague the country as a whole regarding disability and inclusion.

 

 

Conclusion

From the study, Nigeria as a country has already adopted inclusive education. What remains is to sustain it. Many policies have already been adopted to make it work. Unfortunately, however, its full implementation has been faced with a lot of challenges such as the multiplicity of ethnic groups that makes it not very easy to implement any policy effectively. Secondly, Nigerian citizens are faced with a host of superstitions and misconceptions concerning the causes of disabilities, thus making it difficult to get these disabled children in the same learning environment with normal children. Again, there is still dearth of personnel and facilities to fully implement inclusive education in Nigeria.

 

Recommendations

Having examined the above issues, the following recommendations were made

Government to organize a sensitization exercise to enlighten communities in the country in order to eradicate misconceptions regarding the cause of disabilities and to modify the fear s and myths about children with disabilities that create misunderstanding and inhibit normal interaction

Children with disabilities deserve equal access to quality education with normal children. Structures and facilities that are inclusive-friendly to be made available to schools by government

More teachers to be trained in inclusive practices while the existing ones should be fully deployed in the schools both government-owned and private-owned.

 

 

References

Ahmed, A. (2001). Early childhood special education:A strategy of enhancing the education prospect of the young child with handicap. Kano journal of education 6(2).

Choud harry, M. (2015).Inclusive education. Slide share

Christopher, M.V & Elizabeth, A.U. (2012). Teacher preparation for sustainable inclusive    education for persons with special needs in Nigeria. The Journal of the National Centre  for Exceptional Children 14(2).

Florian, L & Linklater, H. (2010). Preparing teachers for inclusive education: using inclusive pedagogy to enhance teaching and learning for all. Cambridge journal of education, 40(4); 369-386.

FME, 2004.National policy on education, Lagos.

Jordan, A, Schwartz, E. & Mc Ghie-Richmond, D. (2009).Preparing teachers for inclusive       classroom. Teaching and teacher education, 25(4); 535-542.

Koivula, P (2012). The role of teachers in implementing inclusive education and the initial and  continuing teacher education for supporting it.

Kurth, J & Forley, J.A (2014). Reframing teacher education: preparing teachers for inclusive       education. American association on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2(4); 286-300

Mefor, C. (2011). Case for inclusive education in Nigeria. What’s up Nigeria. Nigeria’s criers  Sunday, May 22, 2011.

Okwudire, A. M., & Okechukwu, O. (2008). Inclusive education prospects for Children with autism and challenges for educational planners. The Exceptional Child, 10(2); 370-377.

Omede, A. A. & Danladi, M. (2016). Teacher preparation for inclusive education of persons with special needs in Nigeria: the challenges and solutions. European Centre for research training  and development, UK (www. Eajournals.org) 4(1);34-40

Sambo, A. M. & Gambo, M. B. (n.d.) Administration of inclusive education in Nigerian schools: Issues and implementation strategies. A paper delivered at university of Jos, Nigeria. www.sightsavers.org. (2011).

Shade, R. A., & Stewart, R. (20010. General education and special education of pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion: preventing school failure 46.1.Culled from http:/webg.opnet.com/citation.asp.122th may, 2011.

Sharon, L (2013). Prospects of Nigeria achieving education for all by 2015. Retrieved from: http:/studyinnigeria.wordpress.com/tag/education-for-all/

Tyagi, G. (2016). Role of teachers in inclusive education. International journal of education and  applied research, 6(1); 115-116

Umo, U. C. (2013) Education for all in Nigeria. Journal of resourcefulness and distinction, 6(1); 1-15

UNESCO (1994).The Salamanca statement and framework for action on special education:  access and quality, Salamanca, Spain, 7-10 June, 1994. Paris: UNESCO

UNESCO (2005).Guidelines for Inclusion: Ensuring Access to Education for All

 

 

 

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Scope of Inclusive Education

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 1: Scope of inclusive education (Source: Choud harry, 2015)

 

 

 

Appendix B: Children in Inclusive Classroom Setting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 2: Children in inclusive classroom setting (Courtesy: Mefor, C. 2011)

 

 

 

 

 

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY BIOLOGY TEACHERS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL BIOLOGY CURRICULUM IN AWKA SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA.

 

Gloria O. Ezeobi

&

Chris O. Obialor

 

Abstract

The study investigated the problems encountered by biology teachers’ in the implementation of the senior secondary school biology curriculum in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra state. The design used for the study was a descriptive survey research design because it is a large population studied by collecting and analyzing data from a number of people to represent the entire population. The sample of the study comprised all the forty eight (48) biology teachers in 18 government owned secondary schools in Awka south local government Area of Anambra state. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaires and was analyzed using mean statistics. The findings from the study showed that the problems encountered by secondary school biology teachers in the implementation of biology curriculum include insufficient laboratory facilities, insufficient equipment for experiments, lack of in-service training and lack of laboratory assistants and technologists among others. The problems that are encountered by biology teachers in the implementation of biology curriculum also affect meaningful teaching and learning of biology. The researchers therefore, recommended the provision of adequate laboratory equipment, adequate in-service training for teachers for effective teaching and learning of biology.

 

Keywords: Biology teachers, biology curriculum, curriculum implementation

 

Introduction

Educational curricula are designed for the purpose of achieving adequate teaching and learning. Ali (2015) defined curriculum as the sum total of all the experiences through activities and experimentation, which the learner is provided with or acquires at school. Curriculum is defined by Akudolu (2014) as an organized knowledge presented to learners in a school, embedding element in the learning environment. Biology is one of the science subjects done in schools. Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN) 2014 defined biology as the scientific study of the life and structure of plants and animals. Nwagbo (2016) identified biology as having several branches which include: Botany (the study of plants), Zoology (the study of animals); Morphology (the study of external features of living things); Anatomy (the study of internal structures of living things); Physiology (the study of how living things function); Ecology (the study of the relationship between living things and their environment); Genetics (the study of how living things inherit characters from their parents); cell biology (the study of cell structure and function).

 

Implementation is the realization of an application or execution of a plan, idea, model, design, specification, standard or policy (Obia, 2013). Morris (2017) viewed that implementation as the initiation and execution of a designed plan