Making Education for all Inclusive in Developing Countries (Published)
The education for all (EFA) agenda is targeted at achieving inclusive education across regions of the world including developing countries (DCs). The policy is nonetheless not inclusive in the actual sense of the concept. Emphasis of the EFA on ensuring parity in the ways male and female pupils access education in formal settings restricts the policy from becoming genuinely inclusive. Inclusive education as to be a core philosophy to moving the provisions of EFA forward encourages changes to existing local cultures that disadvantage some children and young people within education systems in DCs. It begins with the belief that education is the basic human right of all and the foundation for a more just society. Thus, inclusive education draws on the idea of social inclusion to redefine the provisions of the EFA in order to ensure that education is sincerely for ‘all’ and not nearly for all in DCs.
Keywords: DCs, EFA, Inclusion, Pupils., rural areas
Attitudes of Pupils and Teachers Towards Life Skills Education in Public Primary Schools in Eldoret Municipality, Kenya (Published)
In the year 2009, the government of Kenya introduced Life Skills Education to help the students in coping with the challenges and demands for everyday life. It is important to understand how performed since then. As such, the study was conducted to find out the preparedness of public primary schools in the implementation of Life Skills Education (LSE) curriculum in Eldoret Municipality. Based on the study, this paper examines the attitudes of pupils and teachers towards Life Skills Education in public primary schools in Eldoret Municipality. The study was based on the 1997 Functionalist theory by Kinsley Davis. The study employed a survey design. Out of the total 42 public primary schools in Eldoret Municipality 13 of them were selected through simple random sampling. A sample size of 13 head teachers was purposively selected, from the 13 schools; 39 teachers, 3 from each school, were purposively selected. These comprised teachers of LSE. Stratified sampling was used to select one teacher from lower primary, mid-upper and upper primary. Pupils in Classes Six and Seven were purposively selected. The study, therefore, sampled was 299 respondents comprising of teachers and pupils. The data collection instruments used were: questionnaires and interview schedules for head teachers. Descriptive methods were employed in data analysis and data were presented in the form of frequency distribution tables, graphs and pie charts. Data from the interview schedules was analysed qualitatively. The study findings revealed that majority (69.1%) of the students in public primary schools in Eldoret Municipality enjoyed learning Life Skills Education. This shows that students had a positive attitude towards learning of life skills education. In addition, it emerged that majority of the teachers believed that Life Skill Education was necessary for primary school children. It was therefore recommended that there is need to make its teaching and learning compulsory to all students as it contributes to personal and social development of a child at an early stage. Similarly, for teachers to develop an interest in teaching of LSE, there is need for them to be trained on LSE.
Keywords: Attitudes, Eldoret Kenya, Life Skills Education, Public Primary Schools, Pupils., Teachers