Presbyterian College of Education cries for materials, resources
The Presbyterian College of Education (PCE) located at Akropong-Akuapem in the Eastern Region, lacks materials and resources to fully train students with hearing and visual impairment, as part of its inclusive education policy.
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According to the Principal of PCE, Reverend Samuel Yeboah Antwi, the college’s ability to enrol more students with such disabilities had reduced as a result of financial constraints, insufficient equipment and resource materials.
The centre currently has one embosser, one desktop computer, three braille machines, one braille sheet close circuit television and 10 white cane scanners.
Such a situation, Rev. Antwi said, had reduced the college’s ability to enrol more students with such disabilities.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, he said the population of students with such disabilities was 39, eight of them being visually impaired with the rest hearing impaired.
“Despite our efforts to provide equal opportunities for persons with such disabilities, the lack of resources is making it hard for us to achieve our aim. The little resource materials that we have are worn out, but we cannot replace them due to the unavailability of fund,’’ he said.
Staff
Another challenge, Rev. Antwi explained, was the insufficient number of lecturers and resource persons to teach students with such disabilities.
According to him, the school currently had only seven staff members, including interpreters and tutors dedicated to teaching students with hearing and visual impairment.
That, he said, was a big challenge, as such students required adequate and special attention.
“Another issue is that some of the interpreters who use sign language to interpret what is being taught to those with hearing impairment are not conversant with the subject being taught. How can a person who is not conversant with Mathematics interpret it effectively,’’ he quarried.
Initiatives and achievement
In response to the challenges, Rev. Antwi, explained that the college had come up with certain initiatives to support its inclusive education policy.
He enumerated some of the initiatives as the training of other students in sign language to help in the interpretation of lectures and assignments to their colleagues with hearing impairment.
“A sign language club has therefore, been established to encourage students to take part in such an exercise,’’ he said.
Despite the challenges, Rev. Antwi, said students with disabilities in the college had been performing extremely well in their academic endeavours.
“This year, two visually impaired students had first class division while four had second class upper division. In 2011, two hearing impaired students who had second class upper division, completed their first degree at the University of Cape Coast and are now pursuing Master’s degree programmes in the United States and the United Kingdom.’’ he said.
Support
With regard to the inclusive education policy, Rev. Antwi said the college started it in 1997, and so far, it was the only college of education that admitted students with hearing impairment.
“Our vision is to train people irrespective of their limitations to be world-class teachers. The more support we get, the more students we can admit. We take delight in offering such service so we need the support which will help us to continue doing it and also expanding it further,’’ he said.
He, therefore, appealed to the government and corporate bodies to support the college with a new resource centre to accommodate more hearing and visually impaired students.
“We will also welcome anybody that will help us with hearing aids, loop amplification device, audio meter, visual aids, braille machines, computers, embossers and a speech training unit,’’ he said.
