Teacher Preparation to Implement Inclusive Education in Ethiopia

This study explored the experiences of education personnel about mentoring and preparing teachers for inclusive education in Ethiopia. An interpretive qualitative method is employed to find out the meanings of the mentoring experiences for the teacher trainees as well as the interpretations of these experiences for the researcher.  Judgmental sampling is adopted, in which education officials, experts and school supervisors involved as informants. Focus group discussion and semi-structured interview were used to get the data for the study. The data were analyzed thematically as per the questions of the study. Findings revealed shortage of teachers in SNE, absence of guideline of inclusive education, and lapses in teachers skills as main hindrances to inclusion of children with disabilities into regular schools. It is concluded that while preparing SNE teachers for inclusive education is a responsibility on the part of each regional education bureaus, education personnel faced several challenges to adequately meet this demand.