Support from the Resource Centre and the Government to Implement

Much support is needed from the government through the education department and the resource centres in terms of training, materials and finance. Teachers in the study raised concerns that there was not much support from the government. In many countries, organisations both non-governmental and governmental work collaboratively towards developing programmes and opportunities for special needs children (Faamanatu-Eteuati, 2011); however, though it may be working well in some parts of the world, in others it is not.

Firstly, the study found that there is a lack of assistance from the special education teachers. A participant who teaches a child with disability said that she was not

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visited as much as often. She was visited only once or twice in a month by the resource centre staff. This has caused her to ignore the child with special needs because she had run short of ideas. Other participants raised similar concerns; but in most situations it is not the fault of the staff from the resource centres, it is because there is a chronic shortage of fully certified special education teachers (Brownell, Ross, Colón, and McCallum, 2005), so that they are unable to visit all schools. The ratio between teachers from special education resource centres and special needs students is often quite unrealistic, meaning there are too many children that require help and the number of staff in the resource centres is too small. For example, when the researcher was working in the resource centre in Goroka, East Highland Province, there were only about nine teachers who were actually working with teachers and children with disabilities, making it impossible to cover the whole province and visit all schools.

Secondly, a participant suggested that resource centre staff should be involved in training elementary school teachers. Because teachers in the special education resources centres are thought to have all the expertise on special education, teachers in mainstream schools depend heavily on them for instructional techniques, professional development and resources (Obiakor et al., 2012). This means that if the resource centre officers do not provide assistance the elementary teachers are unlikely to accept children with special needs, or to teach them well if they do accept them. Elementary teacher trainers are responsible for training elementary teachers and, as stated earlier, there are appointed trainers in inclusive practices. But from what the data have revealed it is uncertain whether the trainers are conducting effective trainings.

However, other participants considered that it was the schools that were not opening up and inviting the special education resource centre officers onto their premises. It is only upon requests from the people concerned in elementary training that officers from the special education resource centre conduct training. In regard to in-service training it is mainly the schools‟ responsibility to request an in-service as much resource centre attention is diverted to schools that have

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informed the centre that they have special needs children and require assistance and training. This shows that there is a lack of communication between the professionals, resulting in disabled children missing out on education.

In regard to the government, few teachers have made their opinions and views known about what they think the government should do or should have done before actually developing the policy on inclusive education. Participants voiced their concern about the policy, because putting it into practice is quite a challenge. The top-down decision has had a negative impact on the teachers, and the innocent students with disabilities are feeling the effects. Though the policy was attempting to eradicate inequality in education (Redley, 2009), participants in the study thought that policymakers had overlooked some factors that may work against the policy having its desired effect (Winter, 2006).

The first of these is the conditions of the schools. When such policies were developed too little attention was given to understanding the conditions that the mainstream school teachers work under and the difficulties that mainstream schools are facing. As they would be the key players in implementing the policy, policy makers needed to work with them, and obtain their views and opinions before developing such policies (Winter, 2006). As one participant put it, “They should not just jump through the window” (T1, S1). Furthermore, they should make sure teachers are equipped to include and deliver quality lessons to special needs children. The policy will be hard to achieve with teachers facing barriers such as lack of access to information (Goodman & Burton, 2010).

A second concern is budget. Without financial back-up, how will the policy beimplemented. The special education programme will be facilitated when support for inclusive education is backed up by a budget which takes into account students with disabilities (Singh, 2010). Concerns were raised that the government was not doing enough to support the inclusive education policy; though participants did not directly mention the term „money‟ there is no doubt that

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educational institutions need financial assistance from the government. Budgets should be allocated with consideration for students with special needs.

The key players in the education department make decisions that are at times not in the best interest of other stakeholders. For instance, the special education policy was developed and approved by the government to be implemented but, as this study found, some teachers do not approve of the policy, while others approve but with reservations. They have these mixed emotions because they personally know that they are not prepared with the skills and knowledge to teach special needs students, and furthermore there are many issues in the schools that need addressing before they are able to include those children. It may be assumed that if the government and the policy makers had approached the schools before developing the policy it would be more probable that inclusion could be successful.

According to what the findings have revealed, the government has made the attempt to include special education courses in training institutions to address the issue of a shortage of certified special education teachers. However, as previously mentioned, the teachers are not implementing what they have being taught. Everything has been thrown back to the officers in the centres and this has made it very difficult for the officers.

The study also reveals a lack of communication between the resource centres, schools and the education departments. It must be noted that the problem will probably only worsen when there is a lack of constructive communication between the stakeholders.