Atukunda Judith, Kemeza Imelda; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology © 2020, www.IJARIIT.com All Rights Reserved Page |270 ISSN: 2454-132X Impact factor: 6.078 (Volume 6, Issue 3) Available online at: www.ijariit.com Assessment of stress levels among teachers of learners with special needs in primary schools in Mbarara District, Uganda Judith Atukunda judatukunda@gmail.com Uganda Christian University, Mukono, Uganda Dr. Imelda Kemeza imeldakemeza@yahoo.com Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda ABSTRACT Teachers of learners with special needs in primary schools are faced with different stress levels associated with special needs learners, for example, limited support, poor students’ behavior, un friendly classroom environment and poor professional competency. This paper explored the levels of stress among teachers handling learners with special needs in primary schools of Mbarara Municipality-Uganda. Census was used on the entire population of 53 teachers, purposive sampling was used to select schools handling learners with special needs. Data was collected using a cross-sectional survey design with quantitative and qualitative methods, a structured and open-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire composed of demographic section including total number of years in teaching, positions held in school, highest academic qualification, and formal education under taken for teaching special needs cases. Results show that majority of the respondents were males 27(50.9%), teachers who had an experience of teaching for ten years and above (56.6%), class teachers (52.8%), teachers with diplomas (54.7%), and teachers who had informal education on handling learners with special needs (56.6%). It was further discovered that teachers experienced high levels of stress due to limited support (M = 32.92, SD =9.52), and due to behavior of the students (M = 61.25, SD =15.92). The study recommends that teachers handling learners with special needs be supported by school administrators through refreshers courses to adequately handle learners in a friendly environment. Keywords⸻ Stress Levels, Teachers, Special needs 1. INTRODUCTION Stress is not something strange to our daily life. Individuals may feel stressed not only by facing a bad situation but also work load such as that experienced by teachers. Teaching has been ranked among the top 5 most stressful careers in the world (Lewis, 2006), with between 33% and 37% of teachers studied regularly reporting being 'very or extremely' stressed (Griffith, Steptoe & Cropley, 1999). Smith et al., (2000) study on occupational stress in the United Kingdom revealed that among the groups, teaching is ranked first on highest levels of stress. Compared to other teachers in the United States, those handling learners with special needs experience the highest levels of stress (Cooper, 1988). Equally so, in Nigeria teaching learners with special needs is more stressful. This could be attributed to the unusual nature of the learners and their different learning difficulties (Adeniyi, Fakolade, Olufemi & Tella, 2010). The authors further explicate that poor teacher working conditions contribute to the high levels of stress of teachers handling learners with special needs. The teachers manifest stress symptoms such as anxiety, frustration, impaired performance, and ruptured interpersonal relationship at work, which point to substandard quality of education for students with special needs. This appears to be a disturbing lack of awareness and skills for dealing with diversity among learners, for identifying needs within learners of special needs and within the system, and for evaluating support effectiveness (Leko and Brownell, 2009). This paper assesses the levels of stress among teachers handling learners with special needs. 2. THEORETICAL REVIEW This study was informed by the theory of psychological stress and coping by Lazarus and Folk man’s (198 4). The theory emphasizes the dynamic relationship between the individual and the environmental demands. Research has found out that stress could be thought of as resulting from an imbalance between demands and resources or as occurring when pressure exceeds one’s perceived ability to cope (Lazarus & Folk man 1984). The theory of psychological stress and coping was preferred over the revised stress and coping model (Folk man, 2008) because the latter only considered stress as a result of how a stressor is appraised by an individual and how the individual appraises his or her resources to cope with the stressor at hand and ignored the