Barriers and Challenges Faced by Teachers and Headteachers towards the Inclusion of Students with Special Educational Needs in Government Primary Schools of Karachi
Keywords:
Inclusive education, Special educational needs, Government primary schools, Karachi, Teacher perceptions, Head teachers, Pakistan, Disability inclusionAbstract
Inclusive education has become a central requirement of rights-based education reform, yet the everyday implementation of inclusion remains uneven in many low-resource public school systems. This qualitative study explores how teachers and head teachers in government primary schools of Karachi understand and experience the inclusion of children with special educational needs (SEN). Fourteen government primary schools were selected from the seven districts of Karachi, with two schools from each district. The sample included 84 participants: 70 classroom teachers and 14 head teachers. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through a hybrid thematic approach that combined deductive codes drawn from the study objectives with inductive codes emerging from participants’ accounts. Findings show that educators generally supported the moral idea of inclusion, but their understanding was often limited to physical placement, charitable care, or integration without instructional adaptation. Four major barriers shaped practice: limited professional preparation, overcrowded classrooms, weak infrastructure and learning resources, and peer rejection or bullying. The study argues that inclusion in Karachi’s government primary schools is not failing because teachers lack compassion; it is constrained because policy commitments have not been translated into practical school-level systems, teacher preparation, classroom support, accessible infrastructure, and accountability mechanisms. The paper recommends a phased implementation model that links provincial policy, teacher education, school leadership, community engagement, and district-level resource support. It concludes that genuine inclusion requires a shift from presence to participation, from goodwill to professional competence, and from isolated teacher effort to coordinated institutional responsibility.
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