Technical committee to draft all inclusive education policy
A Technical Working Committee (TWC) is to be established to finalise the drafting of an all inclusive education policy for Ghana.
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The policy which is presently at the drafting stage will ensure that children with special needs receive the required education that will help them to develop their full potential.
This was made known at a stakeholders meeting on the draft document.
Present at the meeting were representatives from the Special Education Division of the Ghana Education Service, the Ghana Blind Unit, the Curriculum Research Development Division (CRDD), Teacher Education Division (TED), Guidance and Counselling (G&C) and the School Health Education Programme (SHEP).
Others were the Department of Children of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, lecturers from the University of Cape Coast and Winneba, representatives from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the Ghana Federation of the Disabled and development partners such as UNICEF.
Special Education
The Director of Basic Education in-charge of Special Education Division, Mr Steven Adu, said the TWC would present the draft policy to the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education to be presented to Cabinet for onward submission to Parliament for consideration.
When passed, children with disabilities or those who require special care in their tuition will be identified at an early stage so that they can also compete with children in the mainstream educational sector.
He said among some of the changes that the new law would promote was the need to reform the present curriculum to help meet the needs of children with special needs.
Also it would call for the training of teachers to gain expertise in handling children with special needs.
Another component of the proposed law will relate to diversifying the assessment system to help categorise the abilities of children with special needs.
According to Mr Adu, when passed into law, the policy would help detect disabilities early in children for them to be given the needed education.
He said although the government’s education strategic plan 2010-2020 had set a strategic goal to improve education for those with physical and mental impairments, as well as orphans and those who are slow or fast learners, this had not been done.
The Chief of Education of UNICEF, Ms Lucinda Ramose, said the new policy was about ensuring that the educational curriculum was responsive to the needs of children with special needs in the country.
She said the policy would help ensure that the number of children who were out of school due to their disabilities were sent back to school.
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