Teachers' Professional Qualification as a Critical Predictor of Learners Academic Achievement in Inclusive Primary Schools

The paper established the relationship between teachers’ professional qualification and learners’ academic achievement in public inclusive primary schools in Kakamega County. This study was informed by the social learning theory of Albert Bandura and adopted a mixed research design. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted. Schools as units of the study were sampled using stratified random sampling and purposive sampling technique with 12 Sub-counties as the strata. Simple random sampling techniques was used to select 826 standards 7 learners while purposive sampling was used to select 33 deputy head teachers, 31 class teachers and 4 Educational Assessment and Resource Centre coordinators. Census sampling was used to select 1 County Director of Education. The total sample size for the study was 899 respondents. Questionnaires, interview schedule, observation check lists, document analysis guide and focus group discussions were used to collect data. Findings showed that the qualifications of teachers are statistically substantial predictor of learners' academic performance It is recommended that the Government of Kenya should train more teachers in special needs education on how to use relevant resources during teaching. It is hoped that the study findings might add to the existing knowledge base in the area of inclusive education