UNICEF presents assistive devices to GES
The United Nations Children's Education Fund (UNICEF) has presented assistive and assessment devices valued at $100,000 to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to support the implementation of the National Inclusive Education Policy.
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The devices include wheelchairs, spectacles, hearing aids, crutches and basic screening materials such as Snellen charts, tennis balls and tossing rings.
They are to be distributed to all the 10 disability assessment centres nationwide, where children with special educational needs are assessed and offered the required assistance to make learning easier for them.
UNICEF procured the assistive devices with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
All-Inclusive Educational Policy
The National Inclusive Education Policy is a social transformation policy aims to integrate children with special needs into the educational system.
The policy advocates the placement of children with mild and moderate disabilities into regular schools rather than the special schools, unless proven through assessment that a child is incapable of benefiting from the regular school system.
These disabilities include hearing, vision, physical and psychosocial.
Currently, UNICEF is supporting the GES to implement the policy in 20 selected districts nationwide. The support will cover capacity building for teachers and other stakeholders on how to determine the special educational needs of every child in school.
Collaboration required
At a ceremony to hand over some of the equipment to the Cape Coast Assessment Centre in Cape Coast last Tuesday, the Director of Special Education Division of the GES, Mr Anthony Boateng, said the support of all stakeholders was required to make the policy successful.
He called on more stakeholders to emulate the example of the UNICEF and the USAID as the government alone could not bear the financial burden of implementing the policy.
“Education is not a privilege but a right and, therefore, every child, regardless of his/her ability, deserves the right to quality education,” Mr Boateng stated.
UNICEF motivated
Making a contribution, the UNICEF Resident Co-ordinator in Ghana, Ms Susan Namondo Ngongi, lauded national efforts to implement an all-inclusive system of education.
She said the United Nations agency was motivated by Ghana’s efforts in the educational sector to continue to partner the government in education development.
Ms Ngongi called for greater collaboration among state actors to implement the policy effectively.
