Implementation of Inclusive Child Friendly Primary Schools Policy in Nyandarua County, Kenya

Abstract

The main problem addressed by this study was the implementation of inclusive child friendly primary schools policy in Nyandarua County. The Inclusive Child Friendly Schools (CFS) policy has become the vehicle through which the government is providing quality education for all children in school by creating a learning environment where all children can learn, all children want to learn, and all children feel included in the classrooms and schools. However, studies show that the conditions in schools are not adequately adapted to accommodate the diversity of learners and even many more children of school going age are left out of school. These challenges generated the objectives of the study which were to examine the practice in public primary schools in line with the inclusive CFS policy and suggestion of appropriate strategies for implementation of inclusive CFS in public primary schools. To achieve this, the study utilized a descriptive survey using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Data collection instruments entailed questionnaires, interview schedule, focus group discussions, observation schedule and document analysis which were first piloted to improve validity and reliability and the accruing data was then analyzed thematically as per the study objectives. The findings of the study indicated that there was a substantial gap between CFS policy expectations and its actual day to day practice in the schools. Schools had the CFS messages engraved but had not made a significant alteration in the line with the policy. From these study findings, the paper presented several policy recommendations including adopting CFS policy to internal contexts so that individual schools look for ways of developing and utilizing selfassessment indicators of CFS at the school levels. Though the area of CFS is relatively new, it was hoped the study could shed light on the way forward for inclusive child friendly school programme in Kenya.