Role of higher education in promoting inclusive education : Kenyan perspective

Abstract

Higher education is a process of imparting knowledge and skills to individuals and empowers them to; participate in development, decision making and democratic process. Effective education takes place when students are able to participate fully and benefit from that education. Higher education in Africa has been perceived as a privilege of the few intellectuals or the rich and therefore those with disabilities are denied accessibility. Currently less than 1% of people with disability in Africa have access to higher education and success of this small portion of the population is limited. Persons with disabilities are unable to access higher education due to barriers outside the institutions and those within. Such barriers include narrowly-defined set of legibility criteria, negative attitude, and inaccessible environments. Inclusive education approach is instrumental in addressing these barriers in order to open higher education for students with disabilities and all those who are currently denied access on racial, ethnic, health, linguistic and cultural grounds. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of higher education in promoting inclusive education in African with a specific case in Kenyan context.