Tetteh Ocloo State School for the Deaf:A special school in dire need
It is the only special school for the hearing impaired in the Greater Accra Region and provides education for 310 pupils who commute daily from various communities in Accra and parts of the Eastern Region.
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From Ningo and Prampram in the Greater Accra Region; Kpong in the Eastern Region and Kasoa in the Central Region, hearing-impaired children, determined to be counted among the educated, commute 80 to 90 kilometres daily to school.
In most cases, pupils from the above-mentioned locations depend on the benevolence of private transport owners travelling those routes to be able to arrive in school on time.
They are often seen swarmed in the bucket of pickup vehicles and sometimes running across the Tema-Accra Motorway at the Adjei-Kojo underpass, where their journeys with the good Samaritans end. They continue on foot to the school, located at Adjei-Kojo, near Ashaiman, which is about two kilometres from the Tema Motorway.
The above are a few challenges that the hearing-impaired pupils of the Tetteh Ocloo State School for the Deaf go through daily in their quest to access quality education to improve their lives.
“It is only by the grace of God that we rarely hear of pupils being run over by speeding vehicles while attempting to cross the stretch and trek further to school”, Ms Barbara Ennin, the headmistress, told the Daily Graphic during a visit to the school on Tuesday, October 27, 2015.
Challenges
A visitor to the school is greeted with two imposing storey buildings made up of an uncompleted boys’ dormitory, a 350-bed girls’ dormitory block, beautifully painted classroom blocks and an assembly hall, among others, which seem to signify that all is well.
However, the 39-year-old school, like many government educational institution is reeling from severe challenges.
Food items, toiletries, water storage tanks, writing desks, among others, are often provided through the benevolence of individuals and institutions.
Feeding grants, unavailability of teaching and learning materials (TLMs) and infrastructural challenges are among the numerous challenges that teachers and pupils continue to contend with daily in their quest to impart and acquire knowledge.
Even when grants of GH¢2.3 per child are eventually released by the government, they often come at the time the school has gone on recess.
As such, the administration of the school is dependent on the benevolence of individuals and corporate institutions.
“We are often indebted to our suppliers and sometimes we are compelled to borrow from the teacher’s welfare fund to be able to feed the pupils”, Ms Ennin indicated.
Day school
The school has no visual media teaching and learning facilities that will promote effective teaching and learning.
It also lacks an effective means of transport to convey students to and from school.
With two 35-seater buses that are only able to transport about 70 to 80 of the 310 pupils to school at a time, pupils are losing out on instructional hours, as they spend most of their time travelling miles to school.
The non-functioning boarding system, which has affected enrolment, has also seen most parents withdrawing their children to other schools outside Accra that have boarding facilities.
Truancy among pupils is equally on the ascendency as pupils take advantage of their inability to get transport to school early to skip classes.
The boys’ dormitory project, which was started in 1999 and funded by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), has been abandoned with parts of the stairs already caving in.
In spite of the danger the structure poses to life, recalcitrant squatters have inhabited the structure, ignoring warnings by the school’s management for them to vacate the facility.
The girl’s dormitory, which was completed in 2011 after many years of abandonment, is presently occupied by some teachers of the school who were transferred from other regions.
Meanwhile, authorities await approval from the Ghana Education Service (GES) for them to begin a boarding system as a way of retaining pupils in school.
The Daily Graphic gathered that although some individuals and organisations have approached the school management with proposals to fund the completion of the boys’ dormitory block, they were unable to do so without recourse to GETFund.
The condition of the building could soon pose a danger to pupils and teachers, following visible cracks that have developed on the structure.
The school has also become a haven for squatters and churches.
While some encroachers have erected homes on the compound and are being inhabited by squatters, some churches have also turned some of the classrooms into church auditoriums where they meet regularly for prayer meetings and Sunday services.
Portions of the surroundings near the uncompleted boarding facilities have become a major defecation centre for residents whose homes lack amenities.
Although some of the encroached structures have had notices boldly inscribed on them by the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) since 2011 asking owners to remove their structures, or face demolition, the owners have remained adamant as a result of inaction from city authorities.
The uncompleted fencing of the school had equally made it possible for residents in the community to use the school as a thorough fare, a situation the headmistress described as posing a security threat to both lives and property, owing to the school’s inability to engage security personnel as a result of an embargo on employment.
“We live at the mercy of constant robbery and vandalisation of school property by criminal gangs in the Adjei Kojo and Ashaiman communities”, Ms Ennin told the paper.
Appeals
The headmistress emphasised that several appeals made to the Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Isaac Odamtten, requesting for a meeting to map out modalities towards addressing the numerous challenges facing the school had been unsuccessful.
The Assemblyman for the area, she indicated had visited the school at the beginning of 2015, after some armed men had vandalised one of the school buses, but had not followed up with any action.
“Since the school falls within the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) acquisition areas, we have written to them to help us address the issue with the squatters, and we can only hope that help may come our way some day”, Ms Ennin stressed.
But the Public Relations Manager at the TMA, Mr Frank Asante has denied the assertions.
According to him, his outfit had neither seen such request from the school, nor has the Coordinating Director of the assembly referred to their notice any such request from the school in connection with encroachment and challenges.
Mr Asante queried whether the school management also sought audience with the Metropolitan Education Directorate in connection with the issues being raised.
“We hold management meetings each and every Monday and the Director in charge of education in the metropolis who regularly attends these meetings never raised any such issue about encroachers erecting illegal permanent dwelling places on the school’s premises”, Mr Asante said.
“We understand how critical special education is and would not hesitate to lend the necessary assistance when approached. The assembly has even made plans to build an infirmary to serve the pupils and the Adjei-Kojo community”, Mr Asante added.
Pass Rate
In spite of the numerous challenges some 20 pupils who were presented for the 2014 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) successfully came out with good grades and 13 of them gained admission to second cycle institutions in the country.
Whereas philanthropists and benevolent organisations continue to shoulder the responsibility of the school, Ms Ennin is hoping that the government would be able to grant them the permission to develop infrastructure in the school and ensure the facility becomes a one- stop shop for special needs education in the Greater Accra Region.