JONAED

Vision has an essential role in a child’s development, and visual deficit is a risk factor not only for altered vision-sensory development, but also for education and overall socioeconomic status throughout life. If there is any group of individuals who need quality education, the visually impaired should be in the fore front. The policy of education for all is therefore a welcome development. Subsequent upon that, this discourse was predicated on the fate of the special needs children and particularly the visually impaired in the Nigerian primary education system. Through extensive review of literature, the researchers discussed the status of inclusive education and x-rayed the numerous challenges to the implementation of inclusive education programmes in Nigeria which included poor funding, poor teacher preparation, lack of school counselors, poor infrastructure, lack of adequate collaboration among regular and specialized personnel and families, unwholesome attitude or stigmatization among others. Using Bruner’s theory of instruction, the theoretical bases for non-restrictive learning environment for the visually impaired children were highlighted. Based on that, the researchers posited that if the challenges are not urgently handled, through restructuring of the major processes of inclusion, the learning difficulties already being encountered by the visually impaired children in the regular classrooms will be exacerbated rather than being abated; and that will impact negatively on the child, the family as well as the society at large. Bearing in mind the zero reject principle of the current education policy in Nigeria and elsewhere which emphasizes equal educational opportunities for every child, the researchers made some suggestions on the way forward centering on curriculum content and implementation processes, including capacity building programmes for personnel and collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches.