Inclusion of Children with Learning Difficulties in Literacy and Numeracy in Ghana: A Literature Review

ABSTRACT

Ghana has a long-standing commitment to improving the education of its citizens. Since its ratification of the United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), this country has experienced significant growth in the areas of inclusive education. However, Ghana still struggles in ensuring that students with disabilities and those with other learning difficulties receive an education in an inclusive setting. This study reviews current literature on students with disabilities and inclusive education in relation to policy, contextual factors, and practice in Ghana. The topics covered include an overview of inclusive education in this country, learning disabilities and other learning challenges, identification and eligibility for special education, differentiation of learning and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and teacher training on the differentiation of instruction and identification. A total of 120 sources were involved in this review, including regional, international and Ghana-based documents, and other secondary sources. The study recommends ways to enhance the inclusion of children with learning difficulties in literacy and numeracy curricula.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusion
• disability
• education
• Ghana
• universal design for learning
• low and middle income
• learning
• assessment

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In addition to federal funding, in the United States, there is also significant financial contribution from the different states and local school districts that can count for up to 20% of the school budget.

2. The Ghana Inclusive Education Policy refers to the identification process as ‘assessment’ however for the purposes of this literature review we will use the terms ‘identification’, screening and evaluation as to not confuse the terminology of ‘assessment’ which can also be used for formative and normative assessments that gauge students progress in the classroom or early grade reading or maths assessments which provide a national snapshot of the state of literacy and numeracy within a country.

3. Often countries use different terminology related to RtI but use similar methodologies and practices that focus on a three-tiered system of intervention and support.

4. In the United States, using one tool for evaluation purposes is prohibited by the inclusive education law, IDEA.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the UNICEF [43266834].