Cape Coast School for Deaf and Blind calls for support
Established in 1970, the Cape Coast School for the Deaf and Blind, with a current student population of 522 students, is confronted with some challenges that call for immediate attention to provide the school with a conducive environment for academic work.
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According to the Principal of the school, Mr Setumtee Ametewee, the institution that caters for pupils with visual and hearing impairment has been facing water problems over the years, while the general living conditions are not the best for students with special needs.
Speaking about the conditions in the school in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra last Tuesday, Mr Ametewee decried the unfriendly environment for the visually impaired students and indicated that the living conditions of the students were not the best, since the pupils needed special attention.
The school compound
He said the school compound was untarred and filled with potholes making movement very difficult for the visually impaired students who always stumbled and fell.
“Most of the visually impaired students do not have the white canes that support them to walk and they always have to struggle to find their way in and out of their rooms,” he said.
Although these students go through mobility and orientation, he stated that they encountered the challenges especially when there was power outage in the school.
He stated, for instance that the students, including the visually impaired, had to travel long distances from their dormitories to neighbouring schools which were located along the highways for water.
“Last year, three of our students were involved in an accident when they were crossing the highway and two lost their lives,” he explained.
He, therefore, called for the construction of a mechanised borehole that would pump water into tanks for the students.
He has also appealed to the government and corporate organisations to help improve infrastructural facilities in the school.
Delayed subvention
The principal also called on government to fast track the payment of subvention to enable them to cater adequately for the students.
Mr Ametewee said the delay in the release of funds for the purchase of food items for the students posed serious challenges to the authorities, adding that although some amount of money was released to them, they had not received any subvention since the school resumed seven weeks ago.
