BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF INCLUSIVE CURRICULUM IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study is a survey design that investigated the benefits and challenges of inclusive curriculum in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Education of All (EFA) is a globally committed arrangement coordinated by UNESCO with laudable goals of realizing the educational needs of all persons irrespective of their diverse abilities and disabilities. One of the most important challenges in education is to develop an inclusive curriculum as well as create and nurture inclusive environments that support learning for all kinds of learners. The pressing global need to ensure that children of nature are accommodated with equal exposure and attention irrespective of their various physical, social, emotional and communication conditions. The degree to which learners can be well educated in an inclusive setting is directly correlated to the nature of the curriculum and the system or manner with which these challenges are handled. Using the purposive sampling technique, a total number of 400 respondents comprising of 200 from Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education (AIFUE) and 200 from Imo State University (IMSU), were selected to represent the entire population which the researcher could not accurately ascertain during the time of this work. A researcher structured four-point Likert scale questionnaire titled Benefits and Challenges of Inclusive Curriculum in Tertiary Institution in Nigeria (BCICTIN) was used for data collection and the data collected were analyzed with the mean and standard deviation at 2.50 decision mark while the independent z-test was used in testing the hypotheses. The result revealed that there is no significant differences between the mean score of psychology Lecturers in AIFUE and those in IMSU on the benefits and challenges of inclusive curriculum in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The researchers recommended that the government should sufficiently fund inclusive education activities to the lecturers and learners and make it practice based, special training for lecturers and staff of inclusive education, extensive public enlightenment for inclusive education etc.