SCHOOL ACCEPTABILITY OF SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN IN NURSERY SCHOOLS IN OREDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA.

ABSTRACT

The study investigated school acceptability of special needs children in nursery schools in Oredo Local Government Area, Edo State. Also, of interest in the study were the levels of school acceptability of special needs children in Oredo Local Government Area based on location, school ownership and type of special needs. To guide this study, four research questions were raised, one was answered directly while the three others were formulated into hypotheses and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population was made up of all teachers in public and private nursery schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo state. The sample size was 60 respondents selected through convenience sampling technique, and the instrument used in data collection was a questionnaire. The data collected were analysed using mean, standard deviation, independent sample t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results revealed that the level of acceptability of special needs children was high, and there is no significant difference in the level of acceptability of special needs children based on location and school ownership but there is a significant difference in the level of acceptability of special needs children based on type of special need. Based on the findings, it was recommended, amongst others, that the Ministry of Education should ensure there is a laid down policy to guide schools in order to protect the children with special needs, as it was found from the research that the presence of inclusive policies and practices ranked low