Managing inclusive education for the attainment of sustainable development goals in Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated management of inclusive education for the attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Abia State,  Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey design. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The population of  the study consisted of 19,640 teachers in Basic and Secondary Schools in Abia State. A sample of 982 teachers representing 5% of the  population was drawn through stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire entitled: “Management of Inclusive Education for  Attainment of SDGs Questionnaire (MIEASDGSQ)” developed by the researchers was used for data collection. The instrument was  adequately validated and a reliability index of 0.88 was obtained through Cronbach Alpha method. Mean, standard deviation and rank  order were used to answer the research questions while z-test at 0.05 level of confidence was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of  the study reveal that the ways that can be used to manage inclusive education for the attainment of SDGs in Abia State among others include providing proper motivation/incentives to teachers; ensuring that teaching resources are adequately provided/ maintained and  providing adequate training and retraining for teachers. The factors impeding management of inclusive education for the attainment of  SDGs among others include lack of specially trained teachers, poor funding of education and lack of well articulated inclusive education  policy. Based on the findings, conclusion was drawn and the following recommendations among others were made: government should  ensure that physical facilities meet international standards and are accessible by children living with disabilities; teachers should be well   trained, remunerated and their welfare enhanced for effective service delivery.