Abstract:
Background: Education is considering an important basic human right for both children with and without disabilities. In many countries, educating children with disabilities in regular schools has become an important goal in the last few decades. Inclusive education is seen as a process of addressing the diversity of needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning. Parents play a major role in this process by deciding to place their children in inclusive education settings.
Aim: This study aimed to measure the attitude of parents of school-going children (children without disabilities) towards inclusive education.
Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 130 participants (76 from rural areas & 54 from urban areas) who were recruited through purposive sampling from four schools in Dhaka & the Narayangonj district. A self-developed questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 19.0.
Result: The majority of the parents 44.7% show a positive attitude towards inclusive education, 55.40% of parents shows a neutral attitude toward disability, and 73.9% of parents showed a negative attitude towards the academic aspect of inclusive education.
Conclusion: Parents show positive attitude but there is still work to be done as parents show neutral attitude towards disability & negative attitude from academic aspects. Parents welcome the children with disability in regular education classrooms but parental optimism decreases when children with challenging behaviors are placed in an inclusive environment. As parents play a major role more focus needs to pay to make inclusive education successful.
Keywords: Inclusive Education, Parent's attitude, children with disability
Description:
This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Occupational therapy, Bangladesh Health Professions Institute, Faculty of Medicine, the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
