Abstract:
Education for all children is a fundamental right enshrined in national and international regulatory frameworks. Yet, the right to education does not necessarily imply inclusion. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF, 2014), a large segment of children are not in school and have long remained invisible, hidden, and forgotten: children with disabilities. The study aimed to identify key challenges and implementation gaps related to inclusive education in Kenya and Tanzania, and to delineate the extent to which these are being addressed through current and/or planned interventions. The study sample comprised 301 respondents (272 teachers, 24 head teachers, and 4 education officers) from the coastal region of Kenya and Tanzania in eastern Africa. Analyses from government policies, status reports, strategies and plans on inclusive education were incorporated to facilitate discussion. The study found that there was an overwhelming challenge of identifying and documenting disability trends in schools. A second challenge was in provision of training to both professionals and paraprofessionals in Tanzania and Kenya. The study recommends that development partners should first commission a study to determine the true demographics of disability in Tanzania and Kenya, in cooperation with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), universities, and advocacy groups, and then synergize resources and expertise to ensure true implementation of inclusion in accordance with the tenets of the Community Based Rehabilitation model (CBR).
