By Patience Gbeze
Accra, Nov. 18, GNA – Chance for Childhood (CfC) Ghana, a non-government organisation spearheading inclusive education, has trained parents on inclusive education, safeguarding and parental support for children with disabilities in Accra.
The training formed part of its “Best Start Early” project aimed at identifying children with learning difficulties at the early stage and to give such children the support that they need to remain in school.
Mr. Richard Opoku, the Global Inclusive Safeguarding Lead of CfC, said the project is being implemented in 10 schools in four districts of the Greater Accra region.
The project is being funded by “Their World” and so far, about 300 parents from the targeted districts – Accra Metro, Ayawaso Central, Ayawaso East, and Ayawaso North were trained.
He said the main activity under the project was training teachers on inclusive education, pre base learning and safeguarding as well as the role of parents in educating children with learning difficulties.
Mr Opoku said training of parents was a key activity under the project because CfC believed that when it comes to teaching children, parents also have a key role to play.
“We have noticed that many children who have dropped out of school because of their learning difficulties were as result of lack of knowledge and unawareness on the part of their parents.
“So, we are training the parents on how they can identify disability in their children and the kind of support they can provide their children while working with their schools to provide support, “he added.
Mr. Opoku said in addition to the training, they also conduct screening to identify children with disabilities, every new academic for Kindergarten One and Two pupils in the targeted schools.
The screening covers vision, hearing and intellectual disabilities after which, children identified with problems are referred for further assistance.
He explained that they do the screening together with the Districts’ Special Education Coordinators and the parents themselves.
“So, when we referred them for assessment, we go to the hospital with the parents for the children to go through the assessment. “
Mr. Opoku noted they had plans to extend the project to other schools in other districts but added that more of that would depend on funding.
He, therefore, appealed to sponsors to come on board to enable them to touch more lives and support children with learning disabilities to remain in school.
He also called on the Ministry of Education to prioritise the Implementation of Inclusive Policy so that children with special needs, especially those with disabilities, would get the needed support.
The participants lauded CfC for the training and the awareness created and appealed to corporate institutions to support CfC to move its activities to other parts of the country to promote a holistic inclusion.
GNA