SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS’ STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL POLICY ON INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PORT HARCOURT METROPOLIS

Abstract

The study investigated school administrators’ strategies for implementation of the National Policy on Inclusive education in secondary schools in Port-Harcourt Metropolis in Rivers State. Seven specific objectives, research questions and seven corresponding hypotheses guided the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted in the study. The study was carried out in Port-Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State. The population of the study was 759 school administrators comprising 718 school administrators in government approved private secondary schools and 41 school principals in public secondary schools in Port Harcourt Metropolis. The sample size of the study was 328 school administrators comprising 287 private school administrators and 41 public school administrators. The purposive sampling technique was adopted in selecting the sample of private schools while the entire 41 public school administrators were studied without sampling. The instrument for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire titled: “School Administrators’ Strategies for Implementation of Inclusive Education in Secondary Schools Questionnaire”. The instrument was subjected to face and content validity by three experts in Educational Management and Measurement and Evaluation respectively. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha Method which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.83, 0.77, 0.82, 0.70, 0.75, 0.81 and 0.91. Mean and standard deviation statistics were used to answer the research questions while z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that majority of the principals in public and private secondary schools are aware of inclusive education in Port-Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State. The study further found that stakeholders’ engagement and advocacy, training of stakeholders, accessibility and safety, creating support for inclusive teaching, adequate resource mobilization, allocation and utilization, and adaptation of curriculum and resource materials would enhance implementation of inclusive education in secondary schools in Rivers State to high extent. The study recommended among others that the government through the Ministry of Education should encourage school administrators to commence the implementation of inclusive education as stated in the National Policy of Inclusive Education for secondary schools since a considerable number of the principals are aware of inclusive education