Access to Inclusive Education for Learners with Disabilities in Nigeria: Discursive Interpretation of Findings

This chapter qualitatively analyses the data generated from the field study conducted in the chapter ‘“Education for All”: Advancing Access to Inclusive Education Practices for Learners with Disabilities in Delta State, Nigeria’, of this book. In that chapter, we found that there has been little progress in advancing access to inclusive education practices for learners with disabilities in Delta state. The chapter revealed possible pitfalls that need to be addressed in order to overcome the current challenges to the realisation of access to inclusive educational practices as they affect learners with disabilities in Delta state. The chapter highlighted the fact that these challenges exist at various levels. At the political level, there is a lack of learning materials, human resources and finances to support learners with disabilities. At the professional level, there is a lack of sufficient knowledge of inclusive education practices by a greater percentage of the teachers who participated in the study. At the school level, the study found the schools’ physical environment inaccessible to learners and that necessary accommodations are lacking. These challenges matter, and the crucial factor is for the state to redirect attention and existing funding towards the development of inclusive endeavours. Awareness of the need to realise inclusive education for learners with disabilities must be created, and this calls for constant advocacy, consciousness raising and interpretive discussions/analyses on the barriers encountered. Hence, a discursive interpretation of the field study findings relevant to Delta state practices and approaches in relation to the delivery of inclusive education to learners with disabilities is considered paramount. The chapter utilises the neo-naturalist theory of law as well as the social model of disability perspectives as qualitative interpretive tools for appraising understandings of inclusivity in education for learners with disabilities in Delta state. Neo-naturalists’ thoughts as well as the social model of disability perspectives align with philosophies underlying UNCRPD’s Committee General Comment Number 4 on prescribed standards of inclusivity that are responsive to substantive ethical justice for everyone. This is consistent with the idea of ensuring full and effective participation, accessibility, attendance and achievement for all learners in all formal and informal educational environments in order to accommodate the differing requirements and identities of individual learners, together with a commitment to remove the barriers that impede that possibility. It is contended that the findings in this study might as well be generalised to the rest of Nigeria. It is also hoped that the analysis will provide valuable insights based on which all states in Nigeria, policymakers and teachers will begin to embrace neo-naturalists as well as a social model for disability perspectives in promoting the inclusive educational needs of learners with disabilities.