ATTITUDE OF REGULAR TEACHERS TOWARDS LEARNERS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN BENIN CITY

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the attitudes of regular teachers towards Special Needs Learners in public primary schools in Benin metropolis, Edo state. Given to the continuous rise of inclusive policies and the fact that regular education teachers are likely to be the principal providers of instruction for students with disabilities, it is important to understand their perceptions of these students. The study was was carried out to determine the regular teachers’ attitude and the influence of sex differences and the years of teaching experience on their attitude towards Special Needs Learners. Three research questions was formulated to guide the study, with two hypotheses. Survey research design was adopted for this study, the total population of the study was the regular teachers in public primary schools within Benin metropolis from which a total of 100 respondents were selected using a simple random sampling technique to be the sample size. A questionnaire tittled "Questionnaire on the attitude of regular teachers towards students with special needs" was used in collecting data. The questionnaire elicited demographic information from the respondents such as their sex and year of teaching experience and also their opinions on the study. Findings from the study revealed that majority of regular teachers in public primary schools in Benin metropolis possesses positive attitude towards Special Needs Learners. Furthermore, the result revealed that there is no significant differences between the attitude of male and female teachers towards the inclusion of students with special needs and that there is no difference between teachers with lesser year of teaching experience and more years of teaching experience in their attitudes towards Special Needs Learners.