The growing impetus of inclusive education necessitates a clear definition of what inclusion is and how it is manifested in schools. The inclusive debate, philosophical and practical, must be moved forward in ways that enable schools and education systems to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate their approaches to inclusion. How this is done on a daily basis presents ongoing challenges for individual teachers, pupils, parents, principals, schools and the system as a whole. This debate must be moved forward to consider the characteristics of classroom practice that could address the needs of all, including those identified as having Special Education Need (SEN).
The teacher being the focal figure in education must be confident and knowledgeable in order to impart the knowledge to their students. Teachers preparedness is concerned with the student as a person and to his general development. The teacher must recognize individual differences among his students and must adjust instruction that best suit to the needs of teachers. It is a distinct fact that as educator, he should play varied and vital roles in the classroom. Teacher needs requires variety of teaching styles and preparations to capture the student interest in inclusive education.
The inclusive classroom situation depends very much on the teacher factor more than any other factor in the school system. The level of teachers preparedness about the special requirements of the inclusive education setting and classroom situation and the degree to which they are prepared to transact the curriculum with all learners will determine the degree to which the school and classroom function effectively as one. Educating students with and without disabilities in the general classroom is becoming the current practice which is commonly known as inclusive education. Inclusive education is perceived to be one of the ways to increase educational access to large number of students with disabilities. This means more children with disabilities will be placed in the regular classroom than before. In order to provide effective inclusive education for all students, teachers need to develop a different set of skills and knowledge than traditionally required by the profession. At the same time the roles of the special education teachers are changing from solely being a teacher to being a case manager.
The researcher made use of descriptive method of research to describe the profile of the teacher respondents, the status of inclusive education program implementation and the level of preparedness of the teachers on the explored variables. For SOP 1, it was pure frequency and percentage distribution and ranking were utilized. For SOP 2 and 3, weighted mean and ranking were administered. The researcher made use of purposive sampling distribution to draw the thirty teacher-respondents. Based on the findings, The Profile of the teacher respondents revealed that majority of them were female and belonged to age bracket range from 26- 30 years, attended school in-service training, teacher I, reading coordinators and bachelor's degree holders. The status of inclusive education program implementation in selected public elementary schools as assessed by the SPED and general education teachers was assessed to be moderately implemented in terms of teachers training; highly implemented in terms of teachers' instructional practices; implemented as to learning resource and materials; and Learners performance. The level of teachers' preparedness in the implementation of inclusive education program was found to be highly prepared in terms of teachers' instructional practices and learners performance; and prepared for teachers training and learning resources and materials. A proposed training program was designed to elevate the level of preparedness of the teachers involved in the implementation of inclusive education program in the early grades to cater learners in this program with utmost delivery of quality education.