Relationship between Teacher Training Practices and Transition to Secondary School for Public Primary School Learners with Disabilities in Meru County, Kenya

Abstract

Access to quality education and transition from primary to secondary school has been low for learners with disabilities compared to non-disabled learners over the years in Kenya. The Kenya Government has established several strategic initiatives and mobilized required resources to address this challenge. Among the key strategies is introduction of special needs education policy in the year 2009 in which enhancement of special needs education teacher training is a major ingredient. Despite the Government interventions, transition of learners with disabilities has remained below 30% nationally and below 16% in Meru County over ten years compared to transition for non-disabled learners that has been on a continuous increase to above 92%. This study sought to determine the relationship between practices of special needs education teachers training and transition of learners with disabilities. The research employed correlation research design and a sample of 350 respondents to represent a study population of 3720 subjects. Data obtained in the study was analyzed using inferential statistics such as analysis of variance and linear regression with the aid of a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21. Findings of the study revealed that practice of teacher training has significant impact on transition of public primary school learners with disabilities to secondary school. According to the findings, every 10% improvement in special needs education teacher training practice would raise transition to secondary school for learners with disabilities by 5.14%. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the Ministry of education should establish and facilitate a programme for regular in-service training of special needs education teachers to keep them abreast with the most effective and modern approaches to teach learners with disabilities. The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development should establish a curriculum that is adaptable to the disabled learners which will enable teachers to effectively plan teaching-learning activities and address learning needs of every disabled learner.