Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies: Home

Abstract:
The study focused on the plight of the hearing impaired in this age of integrating students with disabilities into mainstream schools as a response to the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education 1994. The Millennium Educational Goals also supported the statement as they advocated for education for all by 2015 regardless of any conditions what so ever. The descriptive survey was used to carry out the investigations as it allows describing what one can see over and beyond the horizon. Interviews, questionnaires and participant observation were used to get in-depth insight of the situation. The study revealed that students with hearing impairment are not yet fully integrated into mainstream schools due to lack of resources that seem to be a barrier to effective inclusion. This has prevented the hearing impaired from realising their dreams and vision of turning away from darkness into light. There has been unfair distribution of resources as well as lack of sensitisation of the concerned communities towards the eradication of the stigma attached to disability and the prejudice and discrimination experienced by disabled people. Instead of taking resources where the children are they are taking children where resources are, at the rehabilitation centres like Jairos Jiri Narran Centre. The challenges faced by all stake holders were revealed and recommendations given to help policy makers map the way forward in order to speed up the inclusion of the hearing impaired into mainstream schools and classrooms.

Keywords: seclusion, mainstreaming, hearing impaired, inclusive education

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