The study was conducted in Central (Mumbwa, Chibombo, Kalonga and Mukobeko high schools), Copperbelt (Mpongwe, Ibenga girsl, Kasenshi and Chingola high schools) abd Southern (Hillcrest, Njase, Linda and Pemba high schools) provinces.

The sample had 910 respondents which included 858 pupils (429 boys and 429 girls) and 52 school teachers/counsellors. Since the study had a large sample, a survey design was used. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the sample.

As regards to the status of guidance and counselling services in schools, it was found that, out of 858 pupils who participated in the study, 628 (73.2%) indicated that guidance and counselling services were available in their schools. Similarly, out of the 52 teachers who participated in the study, 39 (75%) of them indicated that guidance and counselling services were available in their schools.

The study also revealed that both the pupils and teachers percieved the guidance and counselling services to be effective although a substantial number of pupils (31%) were of the view that these services were ineffective. Reasons given by these pupils were that the counselling unit lacked confidentiality and at times instilled a sense of fear in them.

Aas regards guidance on the choice of subjects to study, it was found that most of the pupils (60%) agreed that the guidance and counselling unit helped them in choosing subjects. On whether the guidance and counselling unit gave help to pupils in the selection of a career path, the study revealed that most of the respondents indicated that the guidance and counselling unit advised them to work towards their career choices.

As regards to whether pupils were exposed to entry requirements to higher education, the majority of pupils and teachers said that the guidance and counselling unit provided pupils with information on entry requirements for higher institutions. However, 47% of the pupils indicated that the guidance and counselling unit did not give pupils adequate information on entry requirements to higher institutions. They also stated that some personnel that talked to them were not qualified and also that the information given was scanty. In trying to find out how pupils with interpersonal problems recieved help in schools, it was found out that most of them talked to their fellow pupils about the problem. They went to the counselling teacher as a last resort because of lack of confidentiallity among most school counsellors.

The study further sought to find out the causes of indiscipline among pupils in high schools. The following factors were found to contribute to indiscipline in high schools: beer drinking, late coming to school, vandalism, peer pressure, bad company, lack of parental guidance, smoking, teachers not coming to teach when they should, lack of guidance and counselling services in some schools, male teachers being too friendly to female pupils, fighting, insulting, wearing wrong uniforms, too many small rules, male teachers drinking beer with with male pupils and schools being over populated. As regards measures of addressing these factors, most commonly proposed measure was that school authoirities should apply stiffer punishment to offenders.

By: Daniel Ndhlovu, Department of Educational Psychology, Sociology and Special Education, School of Education, University of Zambia.

Key words: Hearing impairment, visual impairment, school counsellors, HIV and AIDS counselling

ABSTRACT
Little was known about the extent to which pupils with hearing and visual impairment accessed HIV and AIDS counselling in schools in Zambia. This study therefore, sought to determine the extent to which pupils with hearing and visual impairment accessed HIV and AIDS counselling in selected schools. In addition, find out factors if any, that hindered pupils with hearing and visual impairment from accessing counselling in schools and possible measures to address such hindrances. The findings of the study were that out of 110 respondents with hearing impairment, only 29% had access to HIV and AIDS counselling. Most (71%) of the respondents did not have access to HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. Regarding pupils with visual impairment, only 24% of the 103 respondents indicated to have had access to HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. The majority (78%) of the respondents with visual impairment indicated that they did not have access to HIV and AIDS counselling in schools.

The factors that hindered pupils with hearing and visual impairment from accessing HIV and AIDS counselling were: not being aware of HIV and AIDS counselling services in schools, school counsellors not being available to pupils with disabilities. In addition, fear of most counsellors not keeping secrets, most counsellors not knowing sign language and Braille contributed to hindering pupils with hearing and visual impairment from accessing HIV and AIDS counselling in schools.

The respondents however, suggested the following measures to address the factors that hindered them from accessing HIV and AIDS counselling in schools: sensitise pupils with hearing and visual impairment on HIV and HIV counselling in their schools, train school counsellors in sign language and braille and those teachers assigned to provide counselling but have no training in counselling ought to be trained.

INTRODUCTION
A situational analysis of accessibility to HIV and AIDS counselling by pupils with hearing and visual impairment is an important aspect in bringing out problems encountered by these pupils and possible interventions to such problems. For instance, Mshoka (a person with hearing impairment) asked that
“do you ever wonder how it feels when you want to share your problem and you can’t? You have people around you who are willing to listen but you simply cannot communicate with them because you have hearing impairment and they don’t know sign language?” In addition, Mtonga (a person with visual impairment) says that “pupils with visual impairment like any other persons are sexually active making themselves prone to HIV infection. If these persons had access to HIV and AIDS counselling services it would be of great help in preventing HIV infections. Very little however, was known whether pupils with visual and hearing impairment had access to HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. The study therefore, sought to conduct a situational analysis and determine the extent to which pupils with hearing and visual impairment accessed HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. In addition, the study sought to find out factors, if any, that hindered pupils with hearing and visual impairment from accessing HIV and AIDS counselling and the possible measures to address such hindrances. It was hoped that, the findings of this study could create a basis for future support to pupils with hearing and visual impairment in regard to accessibility to HIV and AIDS counselling in schools.
Research sites
The sites of the study were 12 schools in three provinces. The sites were as follows: Copperbelt province (Lion Basic school for the blind, Mano Basic school unit for the deaf and blind, Chilengwa Basic school unit, Kamba Basic school unit and Kasenshi Basic school unit for the deaf), Easterm Province (Magwero Basic school for the blind, Magwero Basic school for the deaf, Hillside Basic school unit for the deaf and Katete High school unit for the blind) and Southern Province (St. Mulumba basic school for the deaf and the blind, Rusangu High school unit for the blind and Holy Cross basic school unit for the deaf).

METHODOLOGY
The study involved both qualitative and quantitative methods. In qualitative method semi-structured interviews were used. Quantitative methodology relied on the use of questionnaires.

The population for the proposed study was all pupils with hearing and visual impairment in the selected schools and units in three provinces. In addition, all school counsellors in selected schools were part of the population.

Two hundred and twenty – five (225) respondents constituted the sample. The sample consisted of 12 school counsellors and 213 pupils (both girls and boys) with hearing and visual impairment, i.e. 110 pupils with hearing impairment and 103 pupils with visual impairment.

Simple random sampling procedure was used to select pupils in the sample. Purposeful random sampling procedure was used to select the school counsellors in the sample. Two questionnaires were used to collect data from the 12 school counsellors and 213 pupils in the sample.

Questionnaires were used to collect data from respondents. In order to meet the needs of respondents with visual impairment, the same questionnaire used on pupils with hearing impairment was transcribed into braille. In cases where some respondents were unable to read written questionnaires, semi – structured interviews were used. Where necessary, sign language was used to communicate with the respondents that had hearing impairment in order to collect data from them.

Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The SPSS was chosen because it helps to obtain frequencies and percentages in an accurate, precise, easier and fast way. In order to obtain the required information, numbers were assigned to response categories. For instance, sex as a variable was divided into two categories; namely male and female. The number one (1) was assigned to male and two (2) to female. Scoring was done by counting the number of the respondents who indicated that they were male and female. The scores were expressed in bar graphs, pie charts and tables consisting of frequencies and percentages. In questions requiring a respondent to indicate the degree of agreement or disagreement, a Likert scale was used. Responses were added up in order to determine the percentage of respondents who had positive and negative views on accessibility to HIV and AIDS counselling by pupils with hearing and visual impairment.

Regarding issues of ethical consideration, the names of respondents were not included in the study. All respondents in this study remained anonymous. In addition, care was taken to avoid psychological and emotional harm to respondents in the process of collecting data by asking questions that were non – judgemental. Further, the Ethics Committee of the University of Zambia made sure that ethical issues were taken into consideration in the proposal before approving it.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Extent to which pupils with hearing impairment accessed HIV and AIDS counselling in schools.

The findings indicated that, out of 110 pupils with hearing impairment who participated in the study, most (71%) of them did not have access to HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. Only a few (29%) of the respondents indicated that they had access to HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. See figure 1 below. In regard to respondents with visual impairment, findings indicated that out of 103 respondents who participated in the study, the majority, (76%) of them indicated that they did not access HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. Only a few (24%) of them had access to HIV and AIDS counselling. See figure 2 below. The findings indicated in figure 1 and 2 were consistent with those of Voluntary Service Overseas – Regional AIDS Initiative of Southern Region (2003) who reported that in Namibia, people with hearing and visual impairment had very little access to HIV and AIDS counselling due to lack of skills in sign language and braille by many counsellors.

Figure 1: Extent to which pupils with hearing impairment accessed HIV and AIDS counselling in schools.

Figure 2: Extent to which pupils with visual impairment accessed HIV and AIDS counselling in schools.

Factors that hindered children from accessing HIV and AIDS counselling in schools.
The respondents with hearing and visual impairment indicated: none availability of some counsellors, fear that counsellors would not keep secrets, lack of knowledge in braille by some counsellors as some of the factors that hindered them from accessing HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. They also indicated that most materials on HIV and AIDS were not written in braille making it difficulty for them to access information on HIV and AIDS counselling. The inadequacy of HIV and AIDS counselling literature in braille was also alluded to by Mtonga in a verbal interview on 31 January 2007. Similarly, the Voluntary Service Overseas – Regional AIDS Initiative of Southern Region (2003) acknowledged that there was little information on HIV and AIDS counselling in braille and sign language. For instance, instructions on how to use a condom properly were not written in braille, making it impossible for persons with visual impairment to read and understand the message on correct usage of condoms. Information on correct usage of condoms is one of the aspects of HIV and AIDS counselling and the lack of it is hazardous. Other respondents indicated that not having been aware of the availability of counselling services in school, some school counsellors being not friendly and some counsellors not having knowledge of sign language as factors that hindered them from accessing HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. These findings were consistent with those of the Post news paper of December 11, 2005 edition in which Mshoka pointed out that it was difficulty for persons with hearing impairment to go for HIV testing and counselling because most counsellors did not know sign language. As a result of not knowing sign language most counsellors used interpreters to communicate to clients with hearing impairment thereby eroding confidentiality. Similarly, Ministry of Education (2001) acknowledged that teachers and other staff who had little or no training in counselling or special education had over the years conducted counselling in schools. There is need, therefore, to address such hindrances if pupils with hearing and visual impairment have to access HIV and AIDS counselling in schools.

Levels of professional training in counselling of school counsellors

The findings (in figure 3 below) show that most school counsellors did not have professional training in counselling. For instance, out of twelve (12) school counsellors who participated in the study, four (4) had received training up to a level of certificate and the other four (4) had attendance certificate in counselling. These findings were consistent with those reported by the Ministry of Education (2001) who pointed that teachers and other staff who had little or no skills in counselling conducted counselling in schools. There is need therefore to have trained counsellors in all positions of school counsellors. It is hope that trained school counsellors may understand needs of pupils with hearing and visual impairment better than untrained staff thereby increasing chances for pupils to access HIV and AIDS counselling in schools.
Figure.3: Level of professional training in counseling of school counsellors

Extent to which school counsellors had training in sign language or braille

The findings showed that most school cousellors had no training in sign language or braille. See figure 4 and 5 below.

Figure 4: Extent to which school counsellors had training in braille.

Figure 4 above indicates that four (4) out of twelve school counsellors had training in braille. Most (08) of the respondents did not have training in braille making it difficult for them to provide HIV and AIDS counselling effectively to pupils with visual impairment.

Figure 5: Extent to which school counsellors had training in sign language

The findings in figure 5 above indicate that most schools counsellors had no training in sign language. These findings were consistent with those reported by the Ministry of Education (2001) who pointed out that teachers and other staff who had little or no skills in counselling or special education conducted counselling in schools. These findings clearly show that there are problems that need to be solved in order to enhance accessibility to HIV and AIDS counselling by pupils with hearing and visual impairment. The lack or inadequate training either in sign language, braille or counselling was also pointed out by pupils as reason for them not to find it easy to go to school counsellors for counselling.

Measures to enable pupils with hearing and visual impairment access HIV and AIDS counselling in schools.

Several measures were suggested to address factors that hindered pupils with hearing and visual impairment from accessing HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. The measures were: training school counsellors in sign language and braille. The suggested measures were consistent with those of the Ministry of Education (2001) who acknowledged that although much could be done, it had given direction to the provision of counseling by appointing school counselors in most schools in the country and had been supporting in-service training for counselors at both college and university levels of education. Respondents also suggested that school counselor needed to be available for pupils with disabilities, pupils with hearing and visual impairment should be involved in HIV and AIDS activities, all teachers should learn sign language and braille. Other measures suggested were that materials on HIV and AIDS counseling should be written in sing language and braille, school counsellors should sensitise pupils with hearing and visual impairment on HIV and AIDS counseling. The measures suggested by respondents were similar to those of the Voluntary Service Overseas – Regional AIDS Initiative of Southern Region (2003) who suggested that there must be increased availability of information on HIV and AIDS in braille and sign language to assist the people with visual and hearing impairment to access information on HIV and AIDS. Similar suggestions were also reported by the Post news paper of December 11, 2005 edition in which Mshoka suggested that if there was a chance, let persons with hearing and visual impairment be trained in counselling may be, they could be more available to pupils with disabilities.

CONCLUSION
Throughout the study, it was clear that the majority of pupils with hearing and visual impairment did not have access to HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. Several factors were identified to have hindered most pupils from accessing HIV and AIDS counselling in schools. The measures suggested to address the hindrances to accessing HIV and AIDS counselling in schools included; involving pupils with in HIV and AIDS activities, writing materials on HIV and AIDS in braille and sign language, school counsellors to sensitise pupils on HIV and AIDS counselling and to train school counsellors in sign language and braille.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to express his sincere gratitude to the University of Zambia, particularly the Directorate of Research and Graduate Studies for the financial support rendered to the completion of this study. In addition, the staff in the School of Education, Department of Educational Psychology, Sociology and Special Education is highly appreciated for their support in this study.

REFERENCES
Central Statistics Office (2003). 2000 Census of Population and Housing report. Lusaka: CSO.

Kelly, M, J. (1999). Origin and Development of education in Zambia from pre-colonial times to 1996.
Lusaka: Image Publishers limited

Ministry of Education (2001). Training Teachers in Counselling Skills. Lusaka: Yami Enterprises

National HIV/AIDS/STI/TB Council (2003). National HIV/AIDS/STI/TB Intervention Strategic Plan 2002 – 2005. Lusaka: -

Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Action (2003). HIV/AIDS and Disability. Harare: SAfAIDS
Voluntary Service Overseas – Regional AIDS Initiative of Southern Region (2003). HIV and AIDS and Disability National Conference Report 10 – 12 June. Windhoek, Namibia

United Nations International Children Education Fund (1999). The state of world’s children’s
education. New York: United Nations Publications

UNAIDS, Report on the Global Summary of the AIDS Epidemic, December (2004). AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2004, UNAIDS. Lusaka.

Daniel Ndhlovu. University of Zambia @2008

Mr Ndhlovu is a lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology, Sociology and Special Education, School of Education. He is a Ph D. student in Special Education with the University of Zambia, and holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Special Education from the University of Zambia. He teaches Introduction to Research Methods in Special Education and Counselling in Child Disability. His areas of interest in research are Counselling, Special Education, Gender issues and Early Childhood, Development and Education. He is also a member of the Zambia Counselling Council.

Abstract
This paper reports a study undertaken in 2007 to determine challenges faced by pupils with disabilities in accessing inclusive education in selected schools of Chongwe District in Lusaka Province of Zambia. Data was collected from 424 respondents and informants. Qualitative and quantitative methodology was used in the study. The qualitative method used focus group discussion. Quantitative method mainly relied on questionnaires. The data revealed the following challenges: inadequate funding to schools, long distance to schools, non user friendly infrastructure, inadequate appropriate teaching and learning materials and lack of skills in sign language and braille by teachers for communicating to pupils with disabilities especially those with hearing and visual impairments. In order to address the above stated challenges, the respondents and informant suggested that Ministry of Education should ensure that infrastructure is modified so that it is accessible by all pupils. In addition, all teachers should be trained in sign language and braille and all teacher training institutions should include sign language and braille in their curriculum.

Introduction
Using the International Classification of Functioning definition, the World Health Organisation (WHO 2006) defines disability as a generic term that includes impairments in body functions and structures, activity limitation and participation restrictions. This definition indicates the negative aspects of the inter-action between an individual with a health condition and his/her environmental and personal factors. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure such as deviation or loss. Impairment therefore, refers to physical, sensory and mental problems, including illness and lack of emotional well-being.

Inclusive education is a concept that has brought about a lot of debate due to misunderstanding of what it means and the way it was implemented in Zambia. For instance, a general understanding of the concept is that, inclusive education is a practice of including children with disabilities in the regular educational programme. However, this definition is limiting. For example, one can ask, to what benefit is inclusion to a deaf pupil in an ordinary class and taught by a teacher who does not use sign language to communicate what is being taught? So what is inclusive education? Savolainen et al (2000) point out that inclusive education does not mean just the integration of children and young people with physical, sensory or intellectual disability into regular schools or just the access to education of excluded learners. Inclusion is to be understood as a two way process; firstly of increasing participation in learning and secondly of identifying and reducing or removing barriers that inhibit the learning and participation of all learners. An inclusive school is therefore, a place where every pupil belongs, is accepted, supports and is supported by his/her peers and other members of the school community in the course of having his/her educational needs met. In addition, all pupils are provided with appropriate educational opportunities and resources within the school or class. Care must be taken to avoid indiscriminate inclusion even of pupils with severe disabilities. This view is in line with Ministry of Education (1996:69) strategy of providing education to pupils with disabilities which states that,
‘to the greatest extent possible, the Ministry will include pupils with special educational needs into mainstream institutions and will provide them with necessary facilities. However, where need is established, the Ministry will participate in the provision of new special schools for the severely impaired.’

In addition, World Action Concerning Disabled Persons of (1993), Tanya and Amerena (2007) believe that inclusion is ultimately about removing barriers, not normalisation, cure or mere integration. Removal of physical and attitudinal barriers in schools and communities to a minimal level may contribute greatly to making children with disabilities access education in Zambia.

Practicing inclusive schooling promotes access to education in schools by all learners regardless of their disabilities. Despite the efforts of the Ministry of Education through the Inclusive Schooling Programme (INSPRO) to make schools conducive for inclusive education, studies on inclusive education in Zambia by Kalabula (1991), Kasonde Ng’andu (2001) and Mandyata (2002) indicate that most schools do not have facilities or resources conducive for inclusive education thereby excluding a lot of children with disabilities from accessing education in schools.

Objectives of the study.
The study was guided by the following objectives; (i) to determine number of children excluded from schooling in Nyangwena, Kazemba, Mulola, Chitemalesa and Chinyunyu areas of Chongwe District. (ii) To determine views of teachers on whether inclusive schooling was effective in Nyangwena, Kazemba, Mulola, Chitemalesa and Chinyunyu basic schools. (iii) To identify challenges that children with disabilities face in accessing education in schools in Chongwe District. (iv) To determine measures that could address the identified challenges faced by pupils with disabilities in accessing inclusive education in schools in Chongwe District.

Literature review
World Health Organisation (2006) reports that the prevailing situation in most schools excludes a lot of pupils with disabilities from accessing education. Such exclusion may make it difficult to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. For example, the second goal among the MDGs is to achieve universal primary education. But with 98% (588 million) of the 600 million children with disabililties world wide excluded from school, this may be unattainable.

In Zambia, the situation shows that a large number of persons with disabilities are also excluded from schools. For instance, the Central Statistics Office (2003) reported that there were 256,690 persons with disabilities in Zambia. Out of this number, 43.2% had no formal education, 39.7% had primary school education, 14.5% had secondary school education, 1.3% had A level and another 1.3% had attained tertiary education.

Moberg and Kasonde Ng’andu (2001) reported that 40% of school going children with disabilities in Western and North Western provinces of Zambia dropped out of school system because they could not afford transport to school, food or uniforms. Those in rural schools had to walk an average of 11 kilometres to school.

In regard to attitude of teachers, Mandyata (2002) reported that teachers’ positive attitudes towards inclusion in Kasama depended greatly on their teacher education and availability of support, class size and workload.

Children with disabilities could however, learn in an inclusive setting. But teachers should allow the children to progress at their own pace. The case of Mia in Lebanon that was reported by Farah in 2000 suffices for a best practice of inclusive education. Farah (2000) reported that, Mia’s parents were told that Mia would not progress in school. Contrary to what Mia’s parents were told about her, she went to school. Following her own pace she completed her school programme. She was even employed as a kindergarten teacher’s aid in a regular school.

Methodology
The qualitative and quantitative methodology was used in the study. Qualitative method used focus group discussion. Quantitative method mainly relied on questionnaires. The target population was all parents or guardians of children with disabilities and all their children with disabilities in Nyangwena, Kazemba, Mulola, Chitemalesa and Chinyunyu areas of Chongwe District. In addition, all headmen in Chief Bundabunda’s chiefdom and the teachers from Nyangwena, Kazemba, Mulola, Chitemalesa and Chinyunyu basic schools.

The sample had 424 respondents and informants. It consisted of 50 children with disabilities, 200 ordinary pupils, 100 parents or guardians. In addition, there were 30 headmen or their representatives residing in the study area and 44 teachers from Nyangwena, Kazemba, Mulola, Chitemalesa and Chinyunyu basic schools. The traditional leaders were chosen because of their traditional role in guiding their communities. Parents were chosen because these are persons who know the challenges their children face as they go to schools. Teachers were chosen to provide an educationist view point on the challenges faced by children with disabilities in accessing inclusive education. Children with disabilities were chosen because they were at the centre of experiencing the challenges of inclusive schooling and ordinary pupils were chosen to determine their attitude towards their peer with disabilities in an inclusive school. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select the teachers and ordinary pupils. This procedure had been chosen because it provided each respondent in the population an equal chance to be selected as a study sample. Purposive procedure was used to select the children with disabilities and their parents.

Three separate checklists were used to collect data from village headmen, parents and their children with disabilities through focus group discussions. Focus group discussion was chosen because most parents and children were unable to read and write. The researcher used aural questions in focus groups. Questionnaires were used to collect data from teachers. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse quantitative data while content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data.

Findings and discussion
This section presents findings of the study in relation to the set objectives. The findings are followed by discussion.

Number of children excluded from schooling
The findings of the study showed that 248 children did not access schooling due to physical and socially created barriers in Nyangwena, Kazemba, Mulola, Chitemalesa and Chinyunyu basic schools.

Teachers’ views on the effectiveness of inclusive education in their schools

Teachers’ views on whether inclusive education had been effective in their schools revealed that out of 44 respondents, 78% indicated that it was not effective while 22% indicated that it was effective, see figure 1 below.
Figure 1:
Teachers’ views on the effectiveness of inclusive education in their schools

Teachers indicated several factors that contributed to excluding pupils with disabilities from accessing inclusive education. The following factors were indicated by respondents; inadequate funding to schools, long distance to schools, infrastructure not being user friendly, inadequate appropriate teaching and learning materials and most teachers did not have skills to communicate with pupils with disabilities especially in sign language and braille. These findings were consistent with those those of Kalabula (1991) who reported that, implementation of inclusive education in Zambian schools had faced many challenges such as lack of appropriate teaching and learning materials and inadequate funds.

Inadequate funding to schools
The issue of inadequate funding to schools to a great extent hinders implementation of inclusive education in Zambia. For instance, unsuitable infrastructure, inadequate learning resources, inadequate trained teachers in special education could all be attributed to inadequate funding by the government. Similarly, Kelly (1991) reported that the amount of money spent on education had been declining substantially in real terms to the point that education could account about 2.5% of the Gross Product (GDP) compared to 5 to 6% in the mid 1980s. UNESCO (1994) suggested that government should increase resources such as funding, teaching and learning materials in the mainstream when learners with special educational needs are included.

In addition, Ministry of Education (2006) states that non governmental organisations and the community should also supplement the efforts of the government in supporting the implementation of inclusive schooling programme. Such support would minimise the problem of inadequate funding by government to schools. In turn more children with disabilities may access education.

Inadequate teaching and learning resources in schools
Through out the study teachers, parents and pupils indicated that lack of or inadequate teaching and learning resources in schools contributed to hindering schools from practicing effective inclusive education. Simialrly, Mandyata (2002), found out that, inadequate provision of specialised training and resources to equip teachers in handling children with special educational needs in ordinary classes contributed to many pupils dropping out of school.

Economic barriers
Parents, teachers and traditional leaders indicated that economic factors such as poverty and unemployment contributed greatly to exclusion of children from accessing education. Most parents of children with disabilities were unemployed and poor. Similarly, Kelly (1991) reported that children with disabilities especially girls were victims of poverty. Their parents in most cases were poor and had to struggle to feed and clothe them. Paying school fees was a luxury for such parents. As a measure to economic barriers, especially the issue of school fees, the Government of the Republic of Zambia abolished payment of school fees from grades 1 to 7. In addition, some vulnerable children from basic to tertiary level of education were even benefiting from bursary scheme by the government. Such a practice was consistent with the government policy on education. For instance, MOE (1996) stated that government would disperse all direct educational costs for children with special educational needs and would provide bursaries for such individuals at all levels of education. Sensitisation campaign is therefore, required to parents, children and teachers for them to know that basic education especially grades 1-7 was free in Zambia. There was also need to empower parents of children with disabilities so that they could meet the educational needs of their children since those in grades 8 – 12 and tertiary level of education pay school fees. Non Governmental Organisations could also supplement government efforts by providing bursaries to vulnerable children and those with disabilities.

Long distance to schools
Children, parents and teachers indicated that long distance to school hindered most children with disabilities from accessing education. For instance, in Chinyunyu, children had to walk 12 kilometres to reach school. Such findings were also reported by Moberg and Kasonde-Ng’andu (2001). They reported that 40% of school children with disabilities in Western and North Western provinces of Zambia dropped out of school system because they could not afford transport to school, food or uniforms. Those in rural schools had to walk an average of 11 kilometres to school. The situation became almost impossible for children on wheel chairs or crutches.

Large or overcrowded classes
The researcher observed that some classes were large and overcrowded making it un conducive for pupils with disabilities. For instance, at Chitemalesa basic school, there were 120 pupils in one grade six class. Such overcrowding of classes is what Mandyata (2002) also reported to have caused some teachers in Kasama to refuse accepting children with special educational needs in their classes. It is hoped that if class sizes were minimal to acceptable standards, teachers would accept children with special educational needs in their classes.

Unsuitable infrastructure in schools
Throughout the study, the researcher observed that, despite efforts by Ministry of Education to introduce inclusive education in Zambia, infrastructure was not yet modified to accommodate children with disabilities. For example, there were no ramps, no rails along the corridors and no acoustic materials in most schools. Doors in most school buildings did not allow wheel chairs to pass. This situation made the learning environment somewhat hostile to pupils with disabilities. This observation was consistent with that of Savolainen, (2000) who pointed that in Finland infrastructure was unsuitable to children with disabilities but non Governmental Organisations built new schools, made school infrastructure accessible to children with special educational needs at all levels of education, provided bursaries to vulnerable children and worked with professionals in public awareness on inclusion.

Lack of training in special education by most teachers
Most teachers (34 out of 44) indicated that they lacked training in special education and felt it contributed greatly to exclusion of pupils especially those with hearing and visual impairment. Similarly, Kalabula (1991) pointed out that most children with disabilities placed in ordinary classes in Zambian schools did not have adequate human and material support. In addition, Mandyata (2002) reported that non acceptance of children with disabilities by ordinary teachers in Kasama was mostly due to lack of training and resources to equip teachers in handling children with special needs in ordinary classes. An analysis of the observations by Mandyata (2002) implies that if support services were available in schools teachers would accept children with disabilities. Training in special education for all teachers is therefore, critical to the success of inclusive education in Zambia. Bunch (1997) also suggested that, the Ministry of Education should ensure that in-service training was conducted to teachers and capacity building was done to school managers. Curriculum for all teacher training institutions, should include the teaching methodologies of an inclusive class.

Lack of commitment towards inclusive schooling
Throughout the study, it was established by the researcher that it was not the disability of children that were hindrances to inclusive education but social factors such as lack of commitment by some school managers, ordinary teachers, parents and to some extent the government. For instance, despite the Ministry of Education policy advocating for Education For All, schools in the study sample had a lot of barriers to inclusive education. Similar findings were reported in 2001 by Moberg and Kasonde-Ng’andu (2001). Reasons for lack of commitment included lack of laws and policies to give direction to all educationists in the education system to promote inclusive schooling. Bunch (1997) suggested that the key areas for policy and action for implementing inclusive education were in-service teacher development, student assessment and placement, parental collaboration, and involvement of the larger community. These four areas were seen as central indicators in the successful implementation of inclusive schooling programme. There was need therefore, for an inclusive policy so that educationists were guided in regard to issues of inclusive schooling in Zambia.

Lack of legal framework on inclusive schooling
Teachers indicated that there was need for a legal framework and policy on inclusive schooling in Zambia. The lack of a legal framework on inclusive education had also been identified as one of the barriers to inclusive education by Moberg and Kasonde- Ng’andu. For instance, Kasonde-Ng’andu (2001) sighted lack of laws and policies to give direction to all educationists in the education system in relation to inclusive education.

Need for empowerment of parents of children with disabilities
Parents of children with disabilities indicated that they need to be empowered so that in turn they support their children with disabilities. The concept of empowering parents was consistent with what Savolainen reported in 2000 in Philippines. Savolainen et al (2000) reported that equipped with the needed skills parents were successful to some extent in raising public awareness and support to educate their children. The Philippines government was also lobbied and made modest contributions to support inclusive education in five piloted projects. It is necessary therefore, to consider empowering parents and their children with disabilities so that they can be able to meet costs demanded by schools.

Conclusion
This study has determined that inadequate funding to schools, long distance to schools, infrastructure not being user friendly, inadequate appropriate teaching and learning materials and most teachers having no skills to communicate with pupils with disabilities especially in sign language and braille were challenges faced by pupils with disabilities in the process of accessing education in selected schools in Chongwe District.

Recommendations.
In order to minimise the challenges faced by pupils in accessing education in selected inclusive schools, in Chongwe District, the following recommendation were made.

1. Ministry of Education and its partners should modify infrastructure to suit the needs of pupils with disabilities.

2. All teacher training colleges and universities should include sign language and braille in their curriculum so that the graduates are empowered with skills to communicate with pupils with hearing and visual impairments.

3. Ministry of Education should support and encourage in-service training in sign language and braille to all teachers already in service.
4. Standard Education Officers need to ensure that standards are maintained in schools to avoid overcrowded classes so that children with special educational needs have equal access to quality education.

References
Bunch, G. Lupart, and Brown, M (1997). Resistance and Acceptance: Educator attitudes to inclusion of students with disabilities. Ontario: NewYork University.

Central Statistics Office (2003). Census of population and housing. Lusaka Central Statistics Office:

Charles, C.M and Malian, I.M (1980). The Special Student. St. Louis: CV. Mosby.

Kalabula, D.M (1991) Integrating visually handicapped children into ordinary secondary schools. Birmingham University. (Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis)

Moberg, A and Kasonde-Ng’andu (2001) Moving towards Inclusive Schooling. BESSIP: Lusaka.

Kelly, M.J. (1991). Education in a Declining Economy: The case of Zambia, 1975 – 1985. Washington D.C. World Bank.

Mandyata, J.M. (2002). Teachers’ views on inclusive Practices: A case of basic schools in Kasama District, Zambia: University of Zambia (Unpublished MEd Dissertation. – UNZA)

Ministry of Education (1996) Educating our Future. Lusaka. Zambia Educational Publishing House.

Savolainen, H. and Kaikille, A (2000). Meeting special and diverse educational needs, making inclusive education a reality. Helsinki: Niilomarki Institute

Tanya, B. and Penny, A. (2007). Disability and Inclusive Development. : London:
Leonard Cheshire International

UNESCO (1994) Final Report – World Conference on Special Needs Education. Salamanca: United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation.

Paper presentation by

Daniel Ndhlovu

University of Zambia,
School of Education,
Department of Educational Psychology, Sociology and Special Education Box 32379, Lusaka

at the

Symposium on
Early Childhood Development and Education:

“The Southern and East African experience”

Livingstone Zambia

20-22nd August 2008

Parenting children in early childhood period of development is a challenging responsibility. By 2004, there were 200 million children under the age of 8 years world wide and Zambia had 1,477,952 children aged between 3-6 years (OSISA et al. 2007). These figures obviously should have gone up by now. Based on the World Health Organisation’s projections, 10% of every population are persons with disabilities. It can therefore, be deduced that out of 1,477,952 children that have been identified in Zambia, more than 147,795 (10%) children have disabilities and some one has to parent them. From these figures, we can deduce the magnitude of the challenges of parenting all these children.

The challenges of parenting become more when the parent has among other children, a child with disability. Similarly, Cowan and Cowan (1985) observed that parents of children with disabilities had more challenges than the parents with ordinary children. Parenting a child with disability brings with it several counselling needs in parents.

It is hoped that, through this presentation, the counselling needs of parents would be shared among participants and other readers with the view of helping them cope with the overwhelming counselling needs that they face in the quest of parenting their children with disabilities. It is further hoped that more than twenty million (20,000,000) children with various disabilities world wide may benefit from the results of this presentation.

This paper therefore, presents experiences and counselling needs of parents in parenting children with disabilities. It also discusses how to help parents as they pass through a continuum of reactions in the process of adapting to the new situation of parenting a child with disability.

Experiences of parenting a child with disability
Hickman (2000) reports that, one parent said, ‘the day my child was diagnosed to have a disability, I was devastated. I became so confused that I recall little else about those first days other than the heartbreak.’ Another parent described her experience when she learnt that her child had a disability as a ‘black sack’ being pulled down over her head, blocking her ability to hear, see and think in normal ways. Yet another parent described the trauma as ‘having a knife stuck’ in her heart.

Perhaps these descriptions seem a bit dramatic, yet it has been my experience that they may not sufficiently describe the many emotions that flood parents’ minds and hearts when they receive news that their child has a disability. As a result of their child’s disability, parents are required to make so many adjustments to cope with stress and crises of parenting such a child with a disability.

Counselling needs in parenting a child with disability: The case of a parent in Zambia.

For the purpose of sharing practical experiences of the counselling needs parents go through in parenting a child with disability, the author has included a case of a mother who has a six year old boy with intellectual disability, speech and language difficulties. She has three other children demanding for her attention. In addition, she is a postgraduate student at the University of Zambia, a teacher in Lusaka province of Zambia and a wife. She also participates in various community activities.

Her experience in parenting her six (06) years old boy was expressed emotionally. She kept on sobbing while explaining her parenting experiences. Her report went on as follows: at four months the boy had severe malaria. He recovered. But later the head started growing bigger than normal, delayed in sitting, talking and had frequent seizures. When he was taken for assessment, she was told that the child had difficulties in speech.

Reactions from the siblings and other family members
The child is so hyperactive that his siblings shun him. The mother feels bad because of this. ‘The family of my husband where I thought I could receive support looks at me as if I have brought shame on them. No one is there for my son. They usually said its ok but they are not really there to support me or my son (breaks in tears). My mother in law passes negative comments and refuses the child to come close to her.
I tell you, it is traumatising. What is it that I did wrongly to deserve this experience? What haven’t I done? (breaks in tears)’.

Reactions from neighbours
Most neighbours react negatively towards the child. Society blames her and the husband for not doing enough to help the child. She said, they pass hurting comments such as ‘these parents did this because they wanted to be rich’. Some people treat her as if she has a curse.

Reactions of her husband
She narrated that her husband is supportive. ‘He is the only one, apart from me who is close to the child. He seems to still be in shock. He says he still feels he need to accept the situation. As a result he is usually with the child’.

Reactions from church members
Some church members have not understood and accepted the child’s situation. One day the child was dragged away by an usher who could not tolerate the hyperactive behaviour of the child. From that day I leave the child at home.

Reactions from school
She tried to enrol the child in a nursery school. But the treatment on the child was bad. One day the child messed himself and the teacher poured a bucketful of cold water on him in an attempt to clean the mess. ‘This was too much for the child and for me so I withdrew the child from school. I have kept him in the yard at home so that he doesn’t burden other people’

Source of support
Some friends and relatives are supportive. Her mother is more reliable in terms of support. The maid tries but can not do it to her expectations. She leaves the child with the maid when she go for work, to school for studies but ensures all is there for the child. Every 14 hours, she has to ensure that the child has taken his medicine.

The counselling needs observed in the case study of a parent in Zambia are consistent with the counselling needs other parents world wide experience. For instance, Featherstone (1981) and Hornby (1994) found that social life and leisure activities of many families with disabled children were restricted. Many marriages experienced difficulties in sexual relationships due to fatigue, a sense of isolation on the part of each spouse or the fear of producing another disabled child. Due to the demands of parenting a child with disability, mothers exhibited higher incidence rate of stress related physical and mental disorders than mothers in ordinary families. Fathers were also reported to have difficulty in accepting the disability, particularly if it occurred in a son or if the child was severely disabled. Siblings exhibited anxiety about ‘catching’ the disability or the future possibility of producing children with disabilities themselves. Some grandparents resented their daughter- in-law for not producing a normal child.

How to help parents faced with counselling needs in parenting their children with disabilities.

As a way of addressing the identified counselling needs, the author suggests that counsellors need to demonstrate knowledge of human development and one self, positive attitude and skills for counselling.

Knowledge of human development and one self
Counsellors must be knowledgeable in a number of areas. They should have good understanding of human development and behaviour so that they can recognise what is within the bounds of normal behaviour and what is considered abnormal behaviour in parents and other family members. They should be aware of how parents, siblings and members of the extended families are likely to react to disabilities and this may affect family dynamics. Counsellors should also be aware of the wide range of feelings which parents are likely to experience. For instance, Hornby (1995) observed that parents are likely to experience feelings of shock, denial, anger, sadness, detachment, reorganisation and adaptation. It is therefore, important that counsellors must address the feelings of shock, denial, anger, sadness and detachment.

Counsellors should also have a good knowledge of themselves including their strengths and weaknesses related to counselling. They need to know their values and in particular any prejudice this may have on the client. Counsellors need also to have good knowledge of the values, beliefs and typical behavioural patterns of members of the various cultural groups which the families they work with come from while acknowledging the uniqueness of each family (Sue, Arredondo and Mc Davis, 1992). Importantly therefore, parents should be given enough knowledge of the wide range of services for children with disabilities which are available to them. Counsellors therefore, need to know where to refer parents when they need help which is beyond their area of expertise. Finally, counsellors need to have good knowledge of the counselling process and how it is likely to affect parents.

Attitudes
The most important attitudes which counsellors need to have in order to effectively counsel parents are those of genuineness, respect and empathy. In addition, counsellors need to be interested in their clients and to get satisfaction from helping them. They must believe that parents have the resources within them to understand their problems and adapt their behaviour in order to achieve their goals. Hence, counselling should be a way of support these parents. Counsellors should have a constructive, problem – solving approach to working with parents and a belief that no problem is too big or small to warrant their attention.

Skills for counselling
Many models outlining skills in counselling exit. But the author suggests that counselling skills needed by counsellors who can effectively help parents of children with disabilities are those involved in a problem – solving. This view is consistent with that of Egan (1994:139) who suggests that,
‘Helpers listen to the problem situations of their clients in terms of developmental stages, tasks and crises, in terms of interactions with the social settings of life, and in terms of the strengths, deficits and unused potential in the area of life skills’.

The skills suggested are included in the counselling model which is described below.
The counselling model advocated for in this paper is based on a general approach to counselling which can be used with children and adults in a wide variety of situations.

The model includes a three – stage approach to counselling with stages of listening, understanding and action planning. It s a problem solving model to counselling which draws ideas from models by Egan (1994) and Hornby (1995). Feed back from the professionals who have used it suggests that it is a useful framework for providing supportive counselling.

THE PROBLEM SOLVING MODEL IN
COUNSELLING

The circular nature of the model, as illustrated above is important in that it emphasises that at times it may be necessary to start at action stage and then cycle back to listening stage. For example, if a parent is upset and is demanding immediate advice on a practical problem which he/her has, then it is best to address this first and when the parent has calmed down, move on to the listening stage in order to explore any concerns the parent may have.

Descriptions of the Problem Solving Model in Counselling
LISTENING SKILLS UNDERSTANDING SKILLS ACTION PLANNING SKILLS
Passive listening skills
Complete attention
Use attentiveness skills i.e. No communication blocks and no self listening.

First level listening skills
Use: door openers, minimal encouragers, open questions and attentive silence.

Paraphrasing skills
Use reflecting thoughts to seek clarification etc.

Active listening skills
Reflect client’s feelings, thoughts and meanings
Structuring
Summarising
Informing
Self-disclosure
You – me – talk

Identifying themes
Expressing implications
Noting contradictions

Suggesting alternative interpretations, Suggesting new perspectives.

Suggesting tentative conclusions, Developing goals.
Brain storming options
Evaluating options
Developing plans for actions
Encourage assertiveness
Evaluating progress

Recycling the process
Arranging for further sessions
Referring clients or Concluding the counselling relationship

Strengths of the problem solving model in counselling
The model has the flexibility to cope with a wide variety of parents’ concerns and problems. For example, if the problem presented is mainly a practical one, such as dealing with the child’s bed wetting, the counsellor could move quickly through the listening and understanding stage of the model and more time could be spent on action planning. Alternatively, if the concern is mainly one which involves parents’ feelings, such as their reactions to the way they were told about the disability, then more time would be spent at using listening skills and the counsellor would move to understanding and action planning stages when it’s necessary.

Another point of strength of this model is that by its circular nature it has the possibility of recycling the counselling process until the parent’s problem is solved.

Conclusion
The author is hopeful that through this presentation, the experiences, counselling needs and ways of helping (counselling) parents in the quest of parenting their children with disabilities is clear. It can therefore, be concluded that with this information in this paper, many parents should be helped and counsellors should have a base of knowledge that they can use to help parents as they meet the challenges of parenting their children with disabilities.

REFERENCES

Egan, G. (1994). The skilled helper: The Problem Management Approaches to
Helping. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company: California.

Hickman, L. (2000) Living in my skin: The insider’s view of life with a special
needs child. TX: Communication skill Builders: San Antonio.

Hornby, G. (1995) Working with parents of children with special needs. Cassell:
London.

OSISA, Department of Education, RSA and UNESCO (2007). Early Childhood
Care and Education in Southern Africa: A Colloquium Report.
Johannesburg

Francis Simui
Zambia National Education coalition
Design House, Next to Main Post Office,
P.O. Box. 30774, Lusaka, Zambia.
Phone: 0978 882 952
E-mail: simuifrancis@yahoo.com
@2008

Title: An analysis of Attitudes, Policy and Practice towards inclusive schooling in Zambia.

1.0 Introduction

Early childhood, care, Development and Education has been viewed by many scholars and policy makers to be a conduit to achieving the MDG’s and EFA goals. Despite this view, OSISA, Department of Education- South Africa and UNICEF (2007) report that out of 127 countries who ratified the EFA goals, only 47 have achieved the EFA goals. Of the countries farthest from achieving EFA goals, the majority are in Sub-Saharan Africa and Zambia is of them. Regarding Early Childhood Education, Education For All literary means education for all children regardless of their disabilities. By 2004, there were 200 million children under the age of 8 years world wide and Zambia had 1,477,952 children aged between 3-6 years (Chiwela 2007). These figures obviously should have gone up by now. However, the incidence of early childhood disability in Zambia is unknown due to lack of research on the subject. The Word Health Organisation’s formula estimates of 10% of the child population to have disability shall be used to aid programme planning. Therefore, based on the Word Health Organisation’s projections, it can be deduced that out of 1,477,952 children that have been identified in Zambia, more than 147,795 (10%) children have disabilities and they need access to early childhood care and education. But very few if any of the children with disabilities access early childhood education in Zambia. Several factors intertwine and contribute to this problem.

This paper therefore aims at analysing attitudes, policy and practice and show how they affect achievement of EFA goals in schools. The discourse uses research works done at basic school levels to shed light on the current status at ECCDE level in Zambia. The authors argue that attitudes, policy and practice must be considered as interrelated. There may be good and well meant policies in existent, but what is practiced in schools has a bearing on the attitudes of stakeholders.

It is hoped that through this paper, policy makers, parents, teachers and other stakeholders shall support harmonisation of attitudes, policy and practice on early childhood education in inclusive schools in order for Zambia to achieve the EFA goals. It is further hoped that the 20,000,000 children with disabilities world wide shall benefit from the results of this presentation.

2.0 Background

The international community faces among its challenges, exclusion. The number of people, being excluded from meaningful participation in the economic, social, political and cultural lives of their communities, is increasing at a rapid rate (UNESCO 2003). As a global response to exclusion, the international community convened in Salamanca. Among issues addressed was the question of how to enable regular schools to serve all children. The conference endorsed that:
Schools should accommodate all children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. This should include disabled and gifted children, street and working children, children from remote or nomadic populations, children from linguistic, ethnic or cultural minorities and children from other disadvantaged or marginalized areas or groups (UNESCO 1994:6).

The campaign to enable regular schools serve all children was re-emphasised during the Dakar World Educational Conference (2000) and is also reflected in the Millennium Development Goals (2000). The conference resolved that all member states were to provide Education For All (EFA) by 2015 (UNESCO 2000). As a matter of fact, the origins of EFA movement can be traced as far back as 1948, during the universal declarations of human rights which asserted that “every one has a right to education.” This declaration has become the foundation upon which all subsequent international discussions on education are anchored. For instance, the declaration highlighted above was emphasised during the United Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the World Declaration on Education For All (1990), the Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disability (1993) and the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action (1994) (Stubbs 2002).

Implicit in these global campaigns for inclusive education is a fundamental shift with respect to ways in which Early childhood Care Development and Education is perceived (ECCDE). ECCDE has been viewed by many scholars and policy makers to be a conduit to achieving the MDG’s and EFA goals.

Within the international community there is evidence of a strong thrust towards the idea of inclusive education. In particular, the United Nations organisations have argued that the principle of Inclusion should be at the centre of educational reforms in order to address the challenges of exclusion. This would suggest that inclusive practices should be embedded within the ECCDE.

3.0 Defining inclusive Education

One may ask, as to what inclusive schooling is all about. Globally, an inclusive school is a place where every pupil regardless of his/her disability belongs, is accepted, supports and is supported by his/her peers and other members of the school community in the course of having his/her educational needs met. In addition, all pupils are expected to be provided with appropriate educational opportunities and resources within the mainstream environment (Ainscow 2005).

Inclusion is concerned with providing appropriate responses to the broad spectrum of learning needs in formal and non-formal educational settings. Rather than being a marginal issue on how some learners can be integrated in mainstream education, inclusive education is an approach that looks into how to transform education systems and other learning environments in order to respond to the diversity of learners. It aims towards enabling teachers and learners both to feel comfortable with diversity and to see it as a challenge and enrichment of the learning environment, rather than a problem. Inclusion emphasizes providing opportunities for equal participation of persons with disabilities (physical, social and/or emotional) whenever possible into general education, but leaves open the possibility of personal choice and options for special assistance and facilities for those who need it (Ainscow 1995 and 2003).

4.0 Analysis of policy

Currently, there is no policy on ECCDE yet in Zambia. However, efforts are being made to ensure that policy is designed. As a matter of fact, various stakeholders have been involved in a designing policy. At least, there is a draft policy on ECCDE which is in its final stage.
Despite this lack of policy, the provision on ECCDE is guided by government statements in MoE policy document “Educating Our Future” (1996).

Some of those government pronouncements include the following:

• Every individual in Zambia has a right to education.

• Hence it is a matter of fairness or justice that access to, and participation and benefit in, the education system be available to all.

• The development of education will therefore seek to promote equality of access, participation and benefit for all in accordance with individual needs and abilities.

• Measures to promote equality will include allocating resources to those in greatest need, providing appropriate support systems, and changing the tangible and intangible qualities of the system itself to cater for the diverse educational needs and interests of the population.

• Concerning policy on inclusive schooling, the Ministry of Education states that, it will ensure equality of educational opportunity for children with special educational needs. It is also committed to providing Education of good quality to pupils with special educational needs.

5.0 Analysis of Practices

Despite the government policy on education (MoE 1996) and its efforts to address challenges of exclusion through the Inclusive Schooling Programme (INSPRO), there is still a problem of a large number (147,795) of children with disabilities not accessing education in schools.

Current practice in schools is not consistent with policy on inclusive schooling & ECCDE
• Large number of children with disabilities not accessing education in schools.
• Inaccessible infrastructure
• Negative attitudes
• Teachers not oriented in Inclusive schooling
• Unfriendly Teaching & Learning materials
(Kasonde-Ngandu & Moberg 2001; Ndhlovu (2007) and Simui and Waliuya (2008)

The current practice in schools however, is not consistent with the government policy on inclusive schooling and ECCDE. As a result, despite the government policy on education (MoE 1996) and its efforts to address challenges of inclusive education through the Inclusive Schooling Programme (INSPRO), there is still a problem of a large number of people with disabilities not accessing education in schools due to various barriers including negative attitude. A study conducted by Ndhlovu (2007) in five schools in Chongwe district, revealed that despite efforts to introduce inclusive education in Zambia, infrastructure was not yet modified to accommodate children with disabilities that were being included in these schools. For example, there were no ramps, no rails along the corridors and no acoustic materials in most schools. Doors in most school buildings did not allow wheel chairs to pass. This made the learning environment somewhat hostile to pupils with disabilities.
Inconsistence between policy & Practice makes the learning environment somewhat hostile to children with disabilities. This situation poses a challenge to inclusive schooling for ECCDE.

6.0 Analysis of attitudes
This section analyses attitudes and how they negatively impact on the implementation of inclusive schooling by using two models namely: Medical and Social models.

6.1 Medical Model

The medical models represent a multitude of people who perceive a ‘child’ with disability as a problem requiring ‘fixing’ to fit within the rigid curriculum. Apparently, the Zambian education system appears to be modelled on the philosophies of the medial model. As highlighted earlier, majority of children with special education needs have no access to specialised services in schools. Instead, they are forced to conform to the unresponsive and rigid education system resulting in massive exclusion. This is true of ECCDE also.

Several studies have revealed that negative attitudes of teachers and adults (parents and other family members) are the major barrier to inclusion; children do not have prejudices unless adults show them. The pupils themselves observed such changes. One of them indicated that, “He was afraid to approach his comrades with intellectual disabilities, because it was said that they were inhabited by spirits and could contaminate you.” Now, he concluded, “I know that is not true. Now, we work and play together and I’ve learned to understand them, to like them and to help them when necessary.”

There are many misconceptions surrounding Inclusion that often serve as obstacles to adopting an inclusive approach at the policy level. Among them are:
• Inclusion is costly
• Implementing Inclusion needs societal change in attitudes first
• Inclusion is a positive theoretical concept, but is not practical
• Inclusion requires special skills and capacities that are difficult to develop
• Inclusion is the responsibility of the one ministry, the Ministry of Education.
To the contrary, inclusion ECCDE must be planned, implemented and practiced by all stakeholders for the benefit of children with disabilities.

Overcoming these misconceptions about Inclusion is one of the challenges to change. Individuals involved in a change process may require some pressure to change, but change will only be effective when they are able and allowed to react to form their own positions on the change process. In many cases, policymakers, parents, teachers and other stakeholders in the school need to realise that Inclusion is a process which requires changes at every level of the education system. This can be challenging to accept as it may involve readjusting conceptual
Shared values make cooperation possible, just as lack of them makes it difficult for people to work together. However, when common values are lacking, common interests, which are precursors to values, may substitute for them and in daily life are often a significant driving force. Changes in attitudes involve significant changes in conceptions and role behaviour. Among other factors, this is why change is so difficult to achieve.
6.2 Social Model

The social model places blame on the education system and not the child. It further advocates for the transformation of the environment and not the child.

7.0 Conclusion

We have looked at how Inclusive schooling is defined, some reasons and justifications for its implementation. We have further analysed the policy, practice and attitudes of stakeholders on inclusive schooling.

The paper has clearly shown that there is discrepancy between policy and practice with regards to inclusive schooling in Zambia. Inadequacy or lack of appropriate facilities and resources negatively influence attitudes of stakeholders towards including children with disabilities in an ordinary school. Therefore, attitudes, policy and practice must be considered as interrelated.

As Zambia implements ECCDE, it becomes very necessary that we work on addressing the challenges posed by the medical model system and move towards adopting a social model approach. Otherwise, without focusing on the education system as a problem, we shall be re inventing the wheel by perpetuating the exclusion of children with special education at ECCDE level.

understandings and may have multiple practical consequences but that is the way forward to inclusive schooling.

8.0 Recommendations

i). Policy makers, parents, teachers and other stakeholders should support harmonisation of attitudes, policy and practice on early childhood inclusive education in schools in order for Zambia to achieve the EFA goals.

Link policy, practice and attitudes

ii). There is need to support research in order to establish actual numbers of children with disabilities below the age of 8 years instead of relying on projections by WHO.

9.0 References

Ainscow M. (1995), Education For All: Making It Happen, Keynote address presented at the International Special Education Congress, Birmingham, England, April 1995. Cambridge: University of Cambridge

Ainscow, M. (2003) ‘Using Teacher Development to foster Inclusive classroom Practice’, In Booth, T., Nes, K. and Stromstag, M. (eds.) Developing Inclusive Teacher Education. London: Routledge Falmer. 15 – 32

Ainscow, M. (2005) Developing Inclusive Education Systems: What are the Levers of Change? Journal of Educational Change, (2005) 6, 109-124

Kasonde Ng’andu and Morberg S. (2001). Moving towards inclusive Schooling. BESSIP: Lusaka.

Ministry of Education (1996) Educating our Future, Lusaka: MoE.

Ministry of Education (2001), Inclusive Schooling Implementation Guide: Guidelines
for INSPRO stakeholders. Lusaka: Government Printers.

Ndhlovu ,D. (2007). How ordinary schools can be inclusive to pupils with disabilities in Zambia. Lusaka.

Simui (2007) Preparing Teachers for Inclusive Education: A study of the English approach, Manchester: Un published dissertation.

Stubbs, S. (2002), Inclusive education: where there are few resources. Gronland: The Atlas Allience

UNESCO (2004) changing Teaching Practice: Using Curriculum Differentiation to respond to Student diversity. Paris: UNESCO.

UNESCO (2005) Guidelines for Inclusion: Ensuring Access to Education for All. Paris: UNESCO.

UNESCO (2003), Overcoming Exclusion through Inclusive Approaches in Education: A challenge and Vision. Paris: UNESCO.

UNESCO (1994) The Salamanca World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access and Quality. Paris: UNESCO

UNESCO (2000) The Dakar Framework for Action: Education for All – Meeting Our Collective Commitments. Dakar: UNESCO.