Attitudes of Head Teachers in Government Primary Schools towards the Inclusion of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Mainstream Education in Bangladesh

Introduction: In the last two decades, the implementation of Inclusive Education (IE) has been seen as a priority to ensure quality primary education for all children irrespective of need. Within the inclusion agenda, the mainstreaming of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has gained in importance in many countries including Bangladesh. Though Bangladesh is at an early stage of implementing IE, recently the mainstreaming of children with ASD has increased rapidly with positive attitudes of head teachers seen as playing a key element in the successful inclusion of this population.

Objective: This study sought to gain a better understanding of head teachers’ attitudes about the mainstreaming of children with ASD using a survey design.

Methods and Materials: A total of 73 government primary schools head teachers were selected from eight divisions within Bangladesh using purposively stratified random sampling. Participant’s demographics, conceptual knowledge on ASD, attitudes towards ASD, barriers to mainstream of children with ASD and collaboration among the stakeholders were analyzed.

Results: Most of the participants have good understanding and general knowledge about inclusion and the mainstreaming of children with ASD. The majority of participants were very positive towards inclusion of children with ASD. There were mixed conceptions about community participations regarding the inclusion of children with ASD and the initiatives of the head teachers for involving them were more or less satisfactory.

Conclusion: Most of the head teachers were willing to mainstream the children with ASD. However, successful inclusion of children with ASD requires effective training for head teachers as well as adequate dedicated resources to support the mainstreaming of children with ASD under Inclusive Education.

Keywords: Attitudes, Autism, Autism spectrum disorder, Inclusive Education, Inclusion, Bangladesh, Head Teacher.