Social Inclusion, a Pathway for Educating All Pupils in Mainstream Primary Schools in Cross River State, Nigeria

This survey investigated whether social inclusion influences education for all pupils in state mainstream schools in Cross River State, Nigeria. Two research questions, and hypotheses, were posed for the study. 704 pupils were drawn from eight public primary schools located across the education zones of the state to participate in the study. The social inclusion and mainstream schooling questionnaire (SIMSQ) were utilised to generate data. Following the social inclusion theory, data was analysed using the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient via SPSS software. Findings revealed that policy on inclusion and learner engagement significantly influence education for all pupils in mainstream schools within the context. It is therefore recommended that: the government of Nigeria should revise the national policy on education to properly emphasise mainstream schooling for inclusion to be effective in general schools; special schools should be abolished to give way to mainstream schools; the idea of parity in education can be broadened to inclusion of all children in education; awareness campaigns should be conducted regularly to educate stakeholders about general schools based on social inclusion, and to get their support; pro inclusion laws should be enacted to give legal backing to mainstream schooling; Nigeria should give force to inclusion to make it compulsory for all pupils to receive education in mainstream schools; substantial empirical studies have to be conducted in Nigeria to spark a policy change in the direction of mainstreaming in the country