Teachers’ views on inclusive education for secondary school visually impaired learners: An example from Lesotho

The views of teachers and their experiences and challenges relating to their teaching of heterogeneous learners (including some who are visually impaired) in a mainstream school in Lesotho, were investigated. A case-study format was used together with semi-structured focus-group interviews to gather information from four regular teachers and four support teachers. The results showed that teachers preferred mainstream schooling for children with visual impairment, and that both teachers and learners have benefitted from the inclusion of children with visual impairment. However, some challenges such as the shortage of equipment and support staff were reported – and need to be addressed in order to improve inclusive education for the benefit of teachers and learners (with and without visual impairment) in the school(s) concerned.   Key words: inclusive education, visual impairment, regular teachers, support teachers, teaching strategies, mainstream school, special school