An investigation into barriers to integration programme at St. Joseph's Technical Institute for the deaf in Nyanza Province, Kenya

Abstract

It has been a common issue that the hearing impaired learners are isolated in special institutions. However, the trend today is integration programme (placing both the hearing impaired and hearing learners in the same classroom setting) which has suffered immense limitations. Hence, the need to establish barriers to effective implementation of integration programme as St. Joseph's Technical Institute for the Deaf. The purpose of the study was to identify possible barriers to effective implementation of integration programme at the institute of study. Based on the problem of the study, four objectives were formulated to guide the study The research design was descriptive in nature and target population was the Principal and all the fifteen members of teaching staff at St. Joseph 'technical Institute for the Deaf. Research instruments were: Interview Guide for the Principal, Questionnaire for the teachers and observation schedule which were used to collect data. Collected data were presented and analyzed, then discussed. The main findings were: Insufficient relevant resources and lack of special education training for teachers to effectively implement integration programme at the institute. Conclusion was drawn, guided by the findings, that there were barriers to integration programme at St. Joseph's Technical Institute for the Deaf. Consequently, the following major recommendations were made: The Board of Governors (BOG) should ask the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to provide relevant resources to the institute, and the Principal should encourage teachers to go for special education training.