| dc.description.abstract | Self-reliance skills amongst learners with moderate mental disabilities are essential for their progress and development. Learners are expected to leave school after mastering self-reliance skills which are taught in special schools. Data from Busia County Director's office indicated that 406 (28%) learners in special primary schools in Busia County have stayed in schools for more than 12 years as a result of delay in mastering self–reliance skills compared to data from Siaya 466 (21%), Kakamega 967 (18%) and Bungoma 752 (18%). Parental involvement has been found to produce measurable gains in student achievement. The main purpose of this study was to examine how often parents promoted the acquisition of self–reliance skills amongst learners with moderate mental disabilities (MMD) in special primary schools in Busia County. The specific objectives of the study were to examine how often parents promoted acquisition of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Skills, to examine how often parents promoted acquisition of social skills and to examine how often parents promoted the acquisition of vocational skills to learners with MMD in special primary schools in Busia County. The conceptual framework for this study was guided on how often parents promoted acquisition of self-reliance skills to learners with MMD in special primary schools. From a study population of 406 parents, a sample of 197 parents, 10 headteachers and one County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer (CQUASO) were involved. Simple random was used to select parents, saturated sampling was used to select headteachers and purposive sampling was used to select 2 parents, 3headteachers and the CQUASO for interview. The face and content validity of the research instruments were ascertained by experts in the Department of Special Needs Education Maseno University. Test-retest was conducted with 10% of the population from one headteacher and parents from one special school to determine the reliability of the questionnaires which had a co-efficient of 0.82 for parents’ questionnaire at a p-value of 0.05. The qualitative data were transcribed and analyzed into themes and sub-themes to examine how often parents promoted the acquisition of self–reliant skills. The findings for this study indicated that parents very often promoted the acquisition of social skills, they often promoted vocational skills. However, the study found that parents rarely promoted ADL skills amongst the learners. Based on the findings it is my interpretation that parents do not fully promote the acquisition of self-reliant skills taught in schools leading to learners with MMD overstaying in schools. In conclusion, this study recommends that parents be encouraged to continue practicing with their children in promoting the acquisition of ADL skills at home during holidays. The study is relevant to stakeholders in education for example learners with MMD, teachers, policymakers and members of school management boards on the need to implement the policy on parental engagement and empowerment to enable parents to continue training their children while at home and schools to work together with parents. | en_US |
