Sofokrom(W/R), October 07, GNA – A Four-Day National Sports Competition among Special School Children to unearth talents and showcase children with special needs, has opened at the Sekondi College at Sofokrom in the Western Region.
Athletes from all the ten traditional Regions with Special Schools, except the Upper West, were participating in football, athletics and table tennis competition.
The event, which was being hosted by the Twin-City Special School at Sofokrom, is being sponsored by Special Olympics Ghana and UNICEF.
Speaking to the GNA Sports National Director in charge of Special Olympics Ghana, Mr. Denniswise Quainoo said the national competition would select children with exceptional talents and skills who emerged winners of the competition, to represent Ghana in international sports competition.
He said since 2013 when the global event begun, athletes from special schools won several international medals including the United States 2016 medal, the 2019 medal in Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the 2020 African games in Egypt.
The selection of a national team after the on-going competition, would go through frantic preparation to grab the medal in Germany 2023.
Head of Education for Learners with Intellectual Disabilities at the Ghana Education Service (GES), Madam Belinder Bukari told the GNA Sports that the service cherished inclusive education and would use sporting activities, culture, music, art and dance to unearth talents of special learners who cannot climb.
She said the unit would support special school learners to follow the vocational and academic pathway depending on their cognitive skills in order to integrate them into mainstream society.
Madam Bukari said GES envisaged that the special children attained independence and would not depend on their families for survival and not becoming a burden on society.
She revealed that many of the athletes were internationally recognized who had participated in world summer and winter games and have excelled.
She said GES was doing everything possible to ensure that those who could cope in the mainstream educational setting and developed their critical thinking to write exit examinations.
Madam Bukari said GES would not allow any child to beg for alms and appealed to parents with children with disability to go to the hospital to seek for assistance.
The Western Regional Head Coach for Special Olympics Ghana, Mr. Wisdom Djokoto stressed the need to use the field of sports to showcase the special innate talents of children with low level intellectual faculties.
GNA