JONAED

Although inclusive education is clearly stated as part of the National Policy on Education, its level of implementation is yet to be ascertained in Rivers State. Hence, this study was designed to establish the level of compliance to the inclusive education policy by public secondary schools in Rivers State. Adopting the survey research design, the study made use of a sample of 600 respondents, using simple random sampling technique for the selection. Included in the research sample were some parents and staff in the selected secondary schools. Three research questions and three corresponding hypotheses guided the study. Data used in the study were generated from copies of the questionnaire administered to and retrieved from the respondents. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to answer the hypotheses. Results obtained confirmed that practically, public or government-owned secondary schools were not fully inclusive, bearing in mind the many social factors which might have posed as obstacles, thus representing exclusion. It is recommended that an inclusive education policy of the government that has been packaged for the benefit of all Nigerian children should be strictly pursued in secondary schools in Rivers State, in order to reap all its benefits.