Visually-impaired students honoured for academic excellence
Three visually-impaired students, including an old student, have received awards for excelling academically at the Adidome Senior High School in the Volta Region.
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They are Master Collins Losu and Alfred Fiador, form two General Arts students, and Alfred Dunu, a Level 200 student of the University of Ghana.
Master Losu, who swept three of the awards to the admiration of all, had the opportunity to climb the podium as one of the speakers at the school’s second speech and prize-giving day.
He was honoured for being the overall best student in Literature in English and Ewe Language and also for being the overall best visually impaired student.
Dunu was rewarded for excelling in the 2012 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), while Fiador was adjudged the third best in Literature in English.
Using the braille, Collins gave a wonderful speech and attributed their academic success to hard work and support from their teachers, stressing that people who were visually impaired should not be regarded as ‘half humans’.
Like his elder brother who also completed the school last year with excellent grades, Master Collins suffered the disability at age 12.
The 20-year-old student considered his condition and that of his elder brother as spiritual because doctors could not detect what the problem was.
He said as students, they were faced with a lot of problems, which included the unfriendly nature of buildings on campus and the physical environment, adding that sometimes they fell down as they tried to find their way around.
Collins and Alfred wish to become legal practitioners and entreated the gathering, especially their mates, not to treat them with contempt but help them when they were stranded.
Alfred, affectionately called Oxygen, to which he responds ‘Fear no one except Jah’, complained about how they were ridiculed by some students and also how others stole from their chop boxes.
The headmaster, Mr Elias Avor, observed that the students with disability in his school were very intelligent but needed assistance to become great men and women in the society.
He disclosed that since the introduction of the Special Education Unit, no permanent centre had been provided for the unit, adding that it needed a bigger and permanent space to cater for the increasing number of visually impaired students.
The headmaster mentioned inadequate street light, under-resourced computer laboratory, uncompleted fence, inadequate staff bungalows and absence of a fitting dining hall as some of the school’s challenges and called on stakeholders to assist in that direction.
The Volta Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo, Dufia of Adidome, Torgbe Agyema IV, and the Volta Regional Director of Education, Mr Emmanuel Ketteku, were some of the dignitaries who graced the occasion.
