Influence of training in special needs education in implementing inclusive education in lower grades primary schools in awendo migoriy county, Kenya

This study focused on the Influence of training in special needs education in implementing inclusive education in lower grades primary schools. The study adopted a descriptive survey design to gather data. The location of the study was Awendo, Migori County, Kenya. The target population was lower grades primary teachers in the mainstream schools which have special units. Respondents were 37 in number that included one education officer, nine school heads, and twenty-seven lower grades primary teachers. Quantitative data from questionnaires were analyzed through descriptive statistics while qualitative data from interviews and checklists were analyzed thematically. Pearson’s correlation was employed to test the hypothesis at a significant level of alpha .05. Findings revealed that there is only (26%) of teachers trained in special needs education and these teachers are not enough for all the schools with special units making inclusive education less operational. there is no clear policy guiding the training of teachers in special needs education. The majority of regular schools with special units do not have trained teachers at all in special needs education. There is no clear policy concerning the training and deployment of teachers in schools with a special unit. Hence it is difficult for teachers who are only trained in one area of specialization to manage the classes made of a mixture of learners with different categories of disabilities in addition to learners without disabilities. The main recommendation is that ministry of education may come up with a mass training model where trained teachers are involved in the training of their colleagues who are not trained in special needs education. This will result in enough teachers in regular schools to support learners with disabilities in special units.