Patience Gbeze
Accra, March 20, GNA – Chance for Childhood (CfC), a non-government organisation, has trained journalists from some selected media organisations on inclusive education and the use of appropriate terminologies in their reportage.
More than 20 media houses participated in the training workshop, which also aimed at building their capacity for disability and inclusion of children with disability in mainstream education.
The CfC is a child-centred NGO working to promote inclusive education and a safe learning environment for children in vulnerable situations, including children with disability and out-of-school children.
Mr Richard Opoku, the Senior Programme Manager and Global Safeguarding Lead said the training formed part of the CfC’s advocacy to sensitise the media in using the right terms in their reportage on disability issues.
“We also want to equip the media to advocate for education in the country,” he added.
He decried the many forms of discrimination against people with disability, especially when it comes to education, employment, and other social life issues, noting that a lot has been done since the launch of Ghana’s Inclusive Education Policy by the Ministry of Education in 2015.
However, the CfC said it felt a lot more needs to be done to ensure that children with disabilities get the right support to be educated in mainstream education.
“To achieve that, the government needs to increase funding for inclusive education,” he suggested
“Consistently, inclusive education has been the least funded sub-sector when it comes to education in Ghana, receiving less than one per cent for the past years.
“We want to call on the government to change that trend so that inclusive education will receive adequate funds to achieve its targets,” he added.
Mr Opoku said there was a lot to be done in the policy, including screening for children in Kindergarten One and Kindergarten Two at the beginning of each new academic year and training teachers to identify and handle children with disabilities.
“All these, we need funding to facilitate them. We need to equip the teachers on how to teach children with disabilities. Also, parents too need to be sensitised to know how to collaborate with the schools and how to assist their wards at home,” he said
Mr Opoku noted that lack of funding was the main hindrance to building capacity for more teachers to enable them identify and teach children with disabilities in their Classrooms.
He said the CfC as an organisation working for children with disabilities and ensuring that they get access to education, would continue to advocate until they achieve the necessary results.
The participants were taken through the various forms of disabilities and the right terminologies.
GNA