Measuring what policy misses? A validated policy fidelity to enhance inclusive education and diversity implementation in Eswatini, Manzini region

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Despite Eswatini's legislative commitment to inclusive education through the Education Act of 2012 and the National Policy on Inclusive Education (2018), a persistent gap exists between policy intent and classroom reality. The study addresses the absence of a context-specific, validated instrument for comprehensively measuring the extent to which inclusive education policies are effectively implemented in sub-Saharan African settings. We report the development and validation of the Policy Fidelity Index for Inclusive Education (PFI-IE), a 42-item composite instrument designed to quantify implementation quality across five theoretical domains: (1) structural-legislative fidelity, (2) pedagogical adaptation, (3) resource adequacy, (4) teacher preparedness, and (5) community and stakeholder participation. Using a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, data were collected from 18 primary and secondary schools across the Manzini Region. The quantitative phase involved 312 teachers, 24 school administrators, and 18 education officers from various departments, while the qualitative phase comprised 36 in-depth interviews and 6 focus group discussions. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) supported a five-factor structure (CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.048, SRMR = 0.052). The PFI-IE demonstrated strong internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.87; domain alphas ranging from 0.79 to 0.91) and good convergent validity with the Index of Inclusion (r = 0.73, p < .001). Region-wide implementation fidelity averaged 41.3%, which is critically below the 70% threshold associated with meaningful inclusive outcomes. The pedagogical adaptation domain returned the lowest fidelity score (31.7%), while structural-legislative fidelity was highest (58.4%). These findings expose actionable gaps that aggregate policy audit mechanisms consistently miss, and position the PFI-IE as a replicable, low-cost monitoring tool suitable for other Southern African Development Community (SADC) contexts with intention to enhance diversity and inclusivity.