Abstract:
Vocational Rehabilitation Programme (VRP) is designed to address the social, economic and learning needs of Persons with Special Needs (PwSNs). Though there is evidence that the programme’s objectives are hardly met, previous studies largely focused on determinants of learning outcomes of PwSNs in southwestern Nigeria with little emphasis on evaluation of VRP. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate VRP in terms of availability and adequacy of facilities, equipment and facilitators’ effectiveness in southwestern Nigeria.
Stufflebeam's Content Input Process and Product Evaluation Model provided the framework, while the survey design of the ex-post facto type was adopted. The five public-owned Vocational Rehabilitation Centres (VRCs) in southwestern Nigeria were enumerated. Also, 21 Public-owned Special Schools (PoSSs) that offer VRP were purposively selected across Oyo (3), Osun (4), Ondo (3), Ekiti (3), Ogun (4) and Lagos (4) states. The 26 heads of VRCs and PoSSs, 276 facilitators, 168 caregivers and 1,099 PwSNs were enumerated. The instruments used were VRP’s Equipment and Materials (r=0.89), VRP’s Providers (r=0.87), VRP’s Objectives Attainment (r=0.97) and Facilities, Equipment and Resources (r=0.87) Inventories; VRP’s Trainees’ Content Coverage (r=0.95), VRP’s Techniques (r =0.76) and Facilitators’ Attitude to VRP (r=0.79) questionnaires and VRP’s Checklist (r=0.97). In-depth interviews were held with four caregivers (two each of VRC and PoSSs). Quantitative data were subjected to descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were content analysed.
The PwSNs’ age was 18.50 ±1.70 years, while 52.1% were male and 47.9% female. The VRP in the VRCs was of two years duration, while those in the PoSSs were of six years duration. The PwSNs attending the VRP across the states were Lagos (26.7%), Oyo (19.8%), Ogun (18.8%), Osun (16.6%), Ekiti (9.7%) and Ondo (8.5%). The VRP contents were adequate in line with the stated objectives mean value of =3.28 as against the objective norm of 2.50. The availability of facilities, equipment and resources (18.1%) was low. Discussion ( =3.53), demonstration ( =3.36), project ( =2.79) and group work ( =2.79) methods were predominantly used by the facilitators, while laboratory ( =2.25) and field trip ( =2.13) were rarely used. The general performance of the PwSNs in the programme was low against the objective norm of 2.50, while supervision and control by the supervising government agency were ineffective. In addition, lack of trained facilitators, inadequate funding, ineffective supervision and monitoring, lack of training equipment and facilities were the major challenges confronting the effective VRP implementation.
The vocational rehabilitation programme provided for Persons with Special Needs in southwestern Nigeria was not impactful. Therefore, there is the need for effective supervision and provision of essential facilities and resources.
