Ghanaian Teachers` Attitude towards Inclusive Assessment in Basic Education: A Case Study of Ga-East Municipality

Abstract

Inclusive assessment has been a global issue in recent times especially in this era of inclusive education where teachers frame their teaching, learning and assessment practise to meet students with special educational needs. The broad aim of this study was to assess Ghanaian teachers` attitude towards inclusive assessment in basic educational system. Descriptive survey which is a case study in nature was adopted for this study. Ga East municipality was specifically selected as the target population because it is the only district in Accra that is currently practicing inclusive education in all of its schools. Schools in the Ga-East have a population of five hundred and sixty-eight (568) teachers. The convenience sampling technique was employed to sample 259 respondents (basic school teachers) from the 31 schools in the Ga East district. Findings of this study indicate that a significant majority of teachers have not been adequately trained to adequately accommodate students with various special educational needs in general education classrooms. The study also found out that, teachers believe inclusive assessment is theoretically valid but practically impossible. According to the findings, 76.1% strongly agreed that, at all levels there should be regular monitoring and periodic assessment aimed at improving the child performance. The study concluded that teachers agreed that inclusive assessments provide different students with the opportunities for mutual communication thus promotes students to understand and accept individual diversity. The study further revealed that teachers in the Ga Municipality face challenges in administering inclusive assessment which includes lack of teaching and learning materials, inadequate time for the inclusive assessment, inadequate training in inclusive assessment, large class size, lack of motivation and lack of logistics and facilities. The study therefore recommends that, there is a need to institute and strengthen the special education component in professional development programs in schools. The study further recommends that for successful inclusive assessment to take place, teachers need to tailor the curriculum to suit the needs of all students.