Inclusive education in the Cameroonian urban secondary schools the case of Government Bilingual High School Mendong and English High School Yaounde

Abstract

During my internship I discovered that most students with disabilities are at times been neglected within our society and especially within our Cameroonian schools inspite government policies put in place. At such, I decided to carry out a research of this magnitude. The purpose of the study was to find out how students with disabilities are being included in the educational settings in Cameroon and the challenges they face. The theory used in this study was the theory of Behaviourism, the Constructivist theory by Vygotsky and the theory of Cognitivism by Jean Piaget. These theories explain how people with disabilities are being included in mainstream schools. This study used a qualitative descriptive design to describe teachers', student’s, social workers’ perceptions and their role within inclusive education. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers, students and social workers via Zoom (an online meeting platform). The results were analyzed using themes. The findings from this study indicated that teachers, social workers feel they have different roles and responsibilities in the education of children with disabilities. The study also revealed that challenges with finance, lack of manpower, and government complacency in budgeting and implementing policies were part of the impediments to inclusive education in Cameroon. From the research findings, there is a huge deficit in inclusive education in Cameroon; there is still systematic seclusion of physically challenged children from obtaining quality education due to environmental, financial, structural, and political deficiencies, concerted effort must be put in place to ensure education for all is achieved.