Inclusive Education Policy Implementation In Rural Schools Of Ghana:Interfaces In Discourse And Practice

The 1992 Republican Constitution of Ghana and signatories to several international conventions by governments of Ghana,legitimizes the inclusion of students with disabilities into mainstream schools,as a matter of policy,social justice and human rights.Despite these unequivocal policy stances,the implementation of the inclusive education policy has been problematic –the change process is slow,whiles the setbacks are many especially in rural schools.This exposes a lot of a gaps between inclusive policy blueprint and implementation.Compelling evidence of research in some jurisdictions points that,inclusive education policy implementation is challenging albeit demands of new education transformation agenda that aggressively calls for equity;and social justice.This study seek to explore contextual realities and other challenges that impedes the implementation of the inclusive education policy in rural schools of Ghana.The main objective of this study was to establish the challenges faced in the implementation of inclusive education programs in rural basic schools of Ghana.The main objective was broken into four specific objectives;the first,was to examine the direct and indirect effect of policy clarity on inclusive education implementation,second,to analyze the direct and indirect effect of teachers and teaching learning resources on inclusive education implementation.Thirdly,to analyze the direct and indirect effect of socio economic and cultural elements on the implementation of inclusive education policy.Finally,to analyze the direct and indirect of effect of building unfriendliness inclusive education policy implementation.To achieve the above stated objectives,this quantitative study was conducted in five selected districts in the northern region of Ghana.The districts are Bunkpurugu,Gusheigu,Kpandai,West Gonja and Kariga.The study employed purposive and snowballing sampling technique to quantitatively collate the view of respondents on this subject matter.The questionnaires were administered by three research assistants to the respondents in their homes and work places.There were 280 respondents(administrators,teachers,and parents of children with disabilities,parents of children without disabilities and the disabled children).The respondents comprised of: administrators' 30,teachers,100,parents 85,disabled pupil's 30,GES officials 15.A total of 30 schools from five districts participated in this survey.Data collection was done by distributing questionnaires to schools identified by the Ghana Education Service district(GES)directorate as deprived districts in both human and infrastructure.Convenience and snowball sampling of parents and disable people were adopted to get respondents.From 280 set of questions distributed,270 were returned.From the 270 set,only 250 was accounted,meeting the requirements for the structural equation modeling(SEM).Exploratory factor analysis(EFA)was first performed as a preliminary step to examine and reduce the data using SPSS version 20 and IBM AMOS version 24 for analyses.The results of the data showed that: poor socio economic conditions of parents in rural and indigenous communities exert a negative toll on inclusive education policy implementation thus entrenching the disability poverty nexus.Also,the inclusive education policy blueprint by the Ghana Education Service is conflicting and shrouded in ambiguity.This negatively impede inclusion.Beliefs and cultural value of indigenous societies also,negatively affects inclusive education policy implementation,unmodified built environment negatively impact on inclusive policy implementation.In summary,the study has revealed that,policy blueprints remains hypothetical assumptions until it passes the litmus test of implementation before the efficaciousness of a particular policy can be ascertained.Policy making appropriates advantages and burdens,praises and condemnations,if policies are well implemented,the credit goes to the policy makers,if policies fail,and policy makers fall on their own sword.Hence,educational policies must be subjected to rigorous system think,and in some instances,pilot test and lesson drawing from other jurisdictions before full scale implementation.The study concludes by proposing recommendations to governments and protagonists in education for policy and practice.Those who champion for inclusiveness should,push their advocacies beyond human rights and social justice theories into the realm of economics –poverty alleviation.The enactment of laws on social inclusion should be complimented by targeted social protection programs to empower poor families.Since poverty is a chain reaction reinforcing disability –exclusion nexus,Educational policies and theories on inclusive education should be adapted to fit –into the epistemological and ontological beliefs,and cultures of indigenous populations,commitment by government to bridge or translate policy rhetoric into action are important issues,if given a renewed emphasis,the better for inclusive education.The main innovations of the study are as follows:Firstly,although previous studies have been conducted in the area of inclusive education,it only attempted looking at generic factors impeding educational policy implementations but this present research looked at several intertwined factors both at the home level,pedagogical and at the policy realms and its cumulative impact on inclusive education outcomes,especially in rural communities.This approach departs from the extant literature and it makes it a novelty.Secondly,in terms of theory,the application of internal and external policy evaluation theories,over comes the deficiency of the use of a single model.Where the author,proposes the fine knitting of both evaluation theories into a hybrid model,is a novelty in theoretical perspectives.Finally,in the case of Ghana,distinctive contribution has not been made in the areas of inclusive education,especially in rural areas,the focus of the present studies in rural setting bridges that knowledge gap.