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Republic of G hana's Policy on Inclusive Education and Definitions of Disability
Author(s) -
Lamptey DeLawrence,
Villeneuve Michelle,
Minnes Patricia,
McColl Mary Ann
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of policy and practice in intellectual disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1741-1130
pISSN - 1741-1122
DOI - 10.1111/jppi.12114
Subject(s) - intellectual disability , legislation , inclusion (mineral) , mainstream , perspective (graphical) , medical model of disability , government (linguistics) , social model of disability , special education , education act , political science , disability discrimination , public relations , psychology , medical education , pedagogy , medicine , law , social psychology , psychiatry , linguistics , philosophy , artificial intelligence , computer science
The W orld R eport on D isability addresses the education of students with disabilities and recommends that institutional transformation is needed to facilitate inclusive education. The success of inclusive education depends largely on a country's commitment to adopting appropriate legislation, developing policies, and providing adequate funding for implementation. The R epublic of G hana's policies include children with “nonsevere special education needs” in mainstream schools. The authors examine the definition of disability employed in G hana's policies to assess whether students with intellectual and developmental disabilities are eligible to benefit from these provisions. G hanaian government and relevant disability‐based organizations' documents related to disability and education were identified and examined as to how the policies support inclusion. The definitions were reviewed via the use of a biomedical or social perspective of disability. Of seven policy documents reviewed, three defined disability and the definitions reflected the biomedical perspective of disability. In the absence of definitions of disability in the majority of the Ghanaian policy documents reviewed, it is difficult to determine which children and with what types of disability will qualify to benefit from their provisions.