National Inclusive Education takes off
All public basic schools in the country can now admit children with disabilities and special educational needs following the official launch of the National Inclusive Education (IE) Policy."With the official launch of the National Inclusive Education Policy in May, it means no headteacher can now refuse admission to any child on the basis of disability,” Mr Thomas Patrick Otaah, the immediate past Deputy Director of the Special Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES), has said.
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“For instance, if the child is visually impaired, the headteacher must first accept and admit that pupil and then inform the Special Education Unit, which will post a teacher to assist that special child to be able to read and write in braille and finally be integrated into the school," he explained.
Mr Otaah, who was speaking in an interview with the
, however, pointed out that, the totally deaf children could not be integrated because there were not enough sign language teachers.
Inclusive Education involves changes in the way schools are organised, the curriculum used, as well as the method of teaching, to address the needs and abilities of both disabled and able pupils and students.
Unlike the current practice where able children go to regular or mainstream schools and children with disabilities (special needs) go to segregated or special schools, under the IE policy, mainstream or regular students will study in the same classroom with both the visually and the hearing impaired and the intellectually disabled.
In the December 2014 edition of this paper, it was reported that the GES had announced that it was going to implement the IE in the 2015/2016 academic year.
Prior to that, the policy had been piloted in 749 schools in 48 districts across the country.
Mr Otaah said although the official launch of the policy had been done and schools could now admit children with special needs, they must do so with caution.
"We need to tread cautiously because before we start admitting children with special needs, we need to prepare the minds of the key stakeholders in the community, such as chiefs and queenmothers, the people, staff of the district directorate of education, teachers and headteachers of the school and parents, to know the roles they are expected to play and also to be aware that IE is not a frightening thing," he explained.
He added that able pupils and students would also have to be sensitised to accept children with disabilities and special educational needs, so that they would not be hostile towards those with disabilities.
“Many people have negative perceptions about people with disabilities. While some see disability as a taboo and culturally unacceptable, others see it as a curse. We need to break the myth for people to acknowledge that disability is not dangerous; it is not infectious or a punishment neither it is an inability.
“If you play with a person with disability, it does not mean that you can be infected. We are all children of God. Disabilities are differences we need to celebrate,” he noted.
Mr Otaah expressed the hope that the policy would succeed, adding that there had been many training programmes for headteachers, teachers, circuit supervisors, deputy directors in charge of supervision and circuit supervisors, ahead of the implementation of the IE.
“We have started addressing the problem of making school buildings and classrooms accessible to those with special needs by constructing ramps. Where classrooms are dark, we are removing some of the iron sheets and replacing them with special ones called perspex to throw in light,” he added.
