Abstract:
Trends in the educational provision for children with disabilities have, since the past two and a half decades,
continued to focus on their education in the same setting as that for their peers without special needs. Despite
the many benefits of inclusion, difficulties inherent in this process are major setbacks to wider implementation
of inclusive education. Many teachers of regular schools and other stakeholders doubt the workability of the
strategy and resist the idea of having children with special needs in regular classrooms. This paper is premised
on the findings of a study that sought to establish the influence of teachers’ perceptions on the implementation
of Inclusive Education (IE) in Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) curriculum among rural public
primary schools in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Adopting a mixed design approach, the study sampled 221
teachers. Stratified and proportionate sampling was used to select schools (ECDE centres) and teachers while
was collected using questionnaires, interview schedules and observation guides.Data collected was analysed
both quantitatively and qualitatively. Pearson Chi-square and Regression, and correlation analysis wereused to
establish the existence and strength of association between the study variables. The level of significance was set
at 95% or at a p-value of 0.05. Open-ended questions were analysed through reporting themes and quotas as
they emerged. The analyseddata was presented in frequency tables, graphs and charts denoting the findings of
the study. The study findings indicated that there was no significant association between teacher's perception
(χ2=0.834; df=4; p=0.934) and the implementation of IE. The paper demonstrates that the attitude of the
teachers has so far grown into a pure positive one and as such, attitude is no longer an issue. The teachers have
graduated to accepting and embracing Inclusive Education in their respective settings.Consequently, the
authors callfor the mobilization of teaching and learning resources, assistive technologies and all other relevant
aids towards the success of SNL.
