‘Institute incentive package for teachers in special schools’

The government has been urged to institute special incentive packages for teachers in the various special schools in the country to motivate them to discharge their duties efficiently.

The Northern Regional Director of Education, Alhaji Mohammed Haroon, who made the appeal, said that would also encourage more teachers to accept posting to such schools.

More special schools

Alhaji Haroon, who made the appeal at the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics Ghana sports festival for the various special schools in the Northern, Upper East and West regions at the Tamale Senior High School (TAMASCO) on Wednesday, also called for the establishment of more special schools for persons with special intellectual disability in the country.

That, he said, would ease the congestion and stress parents went through when accessing education for their children, and encourage more parents to take better care of their children with special needs to be trained for a better future .

According to him, there were many children with special needs in the country who had potentials that should be developed, to prevent them from begging on the streets.

Event

The four-day event on the theme, “Developing talents of children with disability through sports”, was organised by the Special Olympics Ghana, in collaboration with the Special Education Division of Ghana Education Service (GES).

It was sponsored by Mr Ibrahim Mahama (the President’s brother); Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS) and the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), both non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and aimed at unearthing talents among people with intellectual disabilities and grooming selected athletes for a national competition later in the year.

Infrastructure/sign language

Alhaji Haroon called for support to improve the infrastructure in special schools in the country, since the enrolment of such persons was on the increase but there were only a few schools for the hundreds of Persons with Disability (PWDs).

He commended the government and stakeholders for the inclusion of sign language in the curricula of tertiary education in the country, observing that it would help students to communicate effectively with the deaf.

The Director of the Special  Education Division of the GES, Mr Anthony Boateng, said the days were gone when PWDs had their events separately due to their challenges and added that the introduction of festivals, like the current one, promoted unity  in the country.

He called for support in the training of PWDs who had been sidelined for the past decades. He osserted that persons with  disabilities should not be prevented from certain opportunities.

“We will collaborate with the organisers to ensure the sustainability of the event for a better future” Mr  Boateng stated.