Human Resource Capacities for Inclusive Education in the Northwest Region of Cameroon

Abstract

Research around inclusive education has paid more attention on practice to the detriment of human resource capacity prerequisites necessary for its implementation. Many actors are providing education to children with disabilities in the Northwest Region of Cameroon (NWR) but little is known about their human resource capacities. Based on these premises, the necessity to fill the gap, motivated this action-based research aimed at identifying the human resource capacities available for inclusive education practice in the NWR of Cameroon. A mixed method design was adopted for data collection and analysis using a comprehensive survey and in-depth key informant interviews. The data analysis grounded on a human rights perspective focused on human resources available, including special teachers, mainstream teachers, different stakeholders and training for inclusive education. The findings show that there is disaggregated information related to human resource capacities for the implementations of inclusive education in the NWR and diversified human resources with each stakeholder implementing to the best of their individual abilities and a wide gap in collaboration amongst stakeholders. The study thus proposes strategies to enhance collaboration that is crucial for IE to succeed and concludes that there is need to build an institutional framework for collaboration that will help to harness the diversified practices. A CoP developed as a result of this research has for the past 3 years implemented 80% of the key findings. The research thus serves as an empirical baseline for projects related to inclusive education and also for researchers and stakeholders interested in the development of inclusive education in Cameroon.