CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Special education is a specially design instruction that meets the unique needs of a student with disability. Kirk and Gallagher (1992), describe special education as any form of education specially designed for exceptional students. These are students who are not able to respond to and benefit from programmes in regular school and must be given special consideration and assistance.
They therefore see special education as those additional services over and above the regular school programme that are provided for exceptional children to assist in the development of their potentialities and or amelioration of their disabilities. In the same vein, Okyere and Adams (2003) reported Heward and Orlansky (1992) as saying that special education is designed to respond to the unique characteristics of children who have needs that cannot be met by the regular school instructional programming and practice. According to them, special education is individually planned systematically and carefully evaluated instruction to help exceptional learners achieve the greatest possible personal self-sufficiency and success in present and future environments.
Edwen (1995) on the other hand regards special education as those additional services over and above the regular programme that are provided for exceptional children to assist in the development of their potentialities and or the amelioration of their disabilities.
The national policy on education having high regards for special education as the education of children and adults who have learning difficulties because of different sort of handicaps blindness, partial sightedness, deafness, hard of hearing, mental retardation, social maladjustment physical handicap etc due to circumstances of birth, inheritance, social position, mental and physical health pattern or accident in later life; as a result, a few children and adults are unable to cope with the normal school class organization and methods. The policy also states this concerning the gifted and talented children they are the specially gifted children who are intellectually precocious and find themselves insufficiently challenged by the programme of the normal school and who may take to stubbornness and apathy in resistance to it.
Form all the analysis made above the consensus among them is that it is the education for student with special needs who have a type of disability, who lag behind their peers academically as well as those who are gifted and talented. This group of individuals is recognized as exceptional individuals because they also need specialized help in order to fully develop their potential. Therefore, special education involve meeting the need of exceptional individuals in a manner that enable them all to reach their fullest potential. This then means providing equal opportunity for all students, including exceptional students to learn and also achieve in their chosen fields of endeavour.
In order not to let the exceptional children waste away, special education programmes are developed for them to help develop their potentials. These special education programme according to professionals in the field of special education such as Abang (1995), Eduwen (1995), Mba (1982), are outlined as follows:
1. Integrated school class programme in which exceptional children need some modification of materials and techniques or some supplementary teaching by regular teachers or special teacher assigned to regular classrooms.
2. Itinerant teacher services in which special needs children receive specialized additional teaching at certain period by visiting specialist such as speech pathologist, remedial reading teacher and others.
3. Regular schools with partially integrated programme which permit exceptional children to take some of their lesson in special classes taught by special teacher, while other lessons are taken in regular classes for example, the deaf child may take language lessons in a special class but may join his classmates for other lesson like physical education activities.
4. Special day schools in which exceptional children receive full time special instruction in special education lesson but come to school from home each day.
5. Hospital or home bound instructions for exceptional children who cannot attend school due to illness or other conditions.
6. Residential schools for the severely handicapped such as boarding schools for the profoundly deaf, blind and the trainable mentally retarded.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
It has been acknowledged that student with hearing impairment encounter major difficulties in achieving their great potentials if the necessary programme are not made available for them and it has been proven that they perform very poorly in English language and mathematics in academic work as it is obvious that most of their teachers are not specialist and therefore do not offer the right kind of educational programme required.
Furthermore, most of the educational programme provided in the schools for the deaf lack the skills of supportive service such as hospital bound instruction required for the exceptional children lack, the itinerant teacher in which special needs children receive specialized additional teaching at certain period by visiting specialist such as speech pathologist, remedial reading teacher.
Therefore, the statement of the problem is the study of service delivery on the academic performance of selected students with hearing impairment.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The major objective of this study is to investigate the effect of special education service delivery on the academic performance of students with hearing impairment in Jos North Local Government area specifically to:
1. find out the nature of special education service delivery on the academic performance of students with hearing impairment.
2. find out the extent special education service will enhance the learning among students with hearing impairment.
3. find out the possible correlation between special educations service delivery and the academic performance of students with hearing impairment.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The followings are the research questions developed to look into the study of special education service delivery on the academic performances of the hearing impairment in Jos North Local Government:
1. To what extent does special education service delivery relates to academic performance of students with hearing impairment in Jos North Local Government?
2. To what extent will special education service delivery improve academic performance of the hearing impaired?
3. What is the effect of special education service delivery in relation to the academic performance of students with hearing impairment?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
On the basis of the research questions, the following hypotheses are posed for testing:
i. There is no significant difference between special education service delivery in relation to the academic performance of students with hearing impairment.
ii. There is no significant difference between special education service delivery and the academic performance of students with hearing impairment.
iii. The effect of special education service delivery has a significant difference on the academic performance of students with hearing impairment.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research is to be based on the study of special education service delivery in encouraging independent learning, self-actualization and educational development of students with hearing impairment. The study will benefit student with hearing impairment, the teachers, school Administrator and curriculum Planners.
It also makes teachers and students beneficiaries through public enlightenment by specialists and the introduction of special education service in schools for the deaf which would be handled by specialist there by making the teachers and students independent and exploring. It is the fact that information or knowledge is power.
The study will enlighten specialist and school administrators to strongly demand for the provision of special education service delivery from the government.
The study will enable curriculum planners and school administrators come together to develop suitable and appropriate curriculum for students with hearing impairment and other special schools consider ensure and emphasis significantly for the provision of special education service delivery where necessary and appropriate.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this study will be within the confine of Ganaka International School Jos, Plateau State. This study will cover the issues of special education service delivery in the school, the study will carefully consider the school population and two classes is considered primary five and six for sampling purposes. In collecting the data there are certain variables that cannot be controlled such as age of onset, socio-cultural background etc.
The study is mainly focused on special education service delivery in the school. How the services provided affect the performance of students with hearing impairment.The main scope of this research is the study of special education service delivery on the academic performance of students with hearing impairment in Ganaka International School Jos North Local Government of Plateau State.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Some of the term used in this study are operationally defines for the purpose of ordinary readers.
Deafness: Lack of hearing loss.
Hard of Hearing: Hearing impairment that is severe but not qualified to be called deafness.
Hearing Impaired: A person with defective hearing which prevent perception of speech sound.
Academic Achievement: The level of educational attainment of the hearing impaired.
Service Delivery: Services that is rendered to the hearing impaired to aid their learning ability.
Academic Performance: To check the strength and weakness of the student.
