Teachers’ perspectives on learners with reading and writing difficulties in mainstream government primary schools in Mauritius

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Teachers’ perspectives on learners with reading and writing difficulties in mainstream government primary schools in Mauritius
 
Creator Veerabudren, Sattiavany Kritzinger, Alta Ramasawmy, Savila T. Geertsema, Salome le Roux, Mia
 
Subject — reading and writing difficulties; perspectives; teachers; inclusive education; Mauritius; mainstream government primary schools; speech-language therapist; special education needs
Description Background: Although Mauritius has adopted an inclusive education policy for learners with special education needs, it has not yet been implemented. Little is known about how teachers support learners experiencing reading and writing difficulties (RWD) in mainstream government primary schools.Aim: The aim of the study was to describe the perspectives of mainstream primary school teachers in Mauritius about learners with RWD and inclusive education.Setting: The data collection took place at the respective schools selected for the study.Methods: A total of 100 teachers from randomly selected schools in Zone 2, an area with urban and rural schools in Mauritius, were recruited to complete a questionnaire.Results: The results show that almost all participants had encountered learners with RWD, but they had no training in RWD or specific learning disorders. Thus, participants had inadequate perspectives about the causes, identification and intervention of RWD. By far, the majority of participants viewed special education schools as the best learning environment for learners with RWD and inclusive education as detrimental to learners with RWD. However, the same number of participants (81.8%) agreed that extensive teacher retraining will facilitate the integration of learners with RWD in regular schools. Younger participants were more interested in training and more experienced teachers tended to view learners with RWD more positively.Conclusion: The study supports the need for in-service training of mainstream primary school teachers in RWD and inclusive education and to include the topics in the curriculum of future teachers.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2021-10-22
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v11i1.1023
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 11, No 1 (2021); 10 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1023/1940 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1023/1941 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1023/1942 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1023/1943
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Sattiavany Veerabudren, Alta Kritzinger, Savila T. Ramasawmy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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