‘National Assessment, Resource Centre needs urgent attention’
The director of the Special Education Division of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Anthony Boateng, has called for urgent attention from the government to expedite action to complete a new building for the National Assessment and Resource Centre.
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The centre, which is a place where children with special educational needs are assessed for appropriate placement into school, currently operates from a temporary structure and does not even have a room to store equipment.
Mr Boateng said in an interview with the media on the recently launched Inclusive Education Policy that “UNICEF donated some equipment to be used for assessment to the centre, but because the temporary structure is not in good shape; thieves have broken into the place several times to steal some of the items.”
Uncompleted building
He said the building was supposed to be completed in six months, “but it is over seven years now and it is still not complete.”
“Staff feel very uncomfortable. When it is sunny, the place is too warm; they are not able to stay there, and when it rains hard, it is another challenge,” Mr Boateng said.
Commenting on the Inclusive Education Policy, he said the policy made it possible for all children with special educational needs to be sent to school.
He added that the GES had established unit schools that were attached to regular schools in selected public schools where professionals and special educators were readily available, alongside the mainstream teachers, to help children with special educational needs.
Advice to parents
He advised parents who encountered difficulties sending their children with special needs to school to contact the assessment centre for help.
Mr Boateng added: “Children with special needs can now attend school and be trained, with the gradual implementation of the Inclusive Education Policy.”
The Inclusive Education Policy in Ghana makes it possible for schools to accommodate all children, regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions.
Some parents of children with cerebral palsy earlier complained that their children were refused admission even to special schools.
Some of them explained that the schools required that children with special needs were trained to be able to access the washroom, and help themselves to a large extent, before being admitted to schools of any kind.