Accra, May 14, GNA – Ms Emma Lillian Bruce-Lyle, a Public Administration and Disability Consultant, has called for special and disabled students to be trained together with other students in regular schools.
She said training them in special schools deprived them of the socialisation they needed for their development.
Ms Bruce-Lyle said this at the national Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Implementation Coordination Committee (ICC) meeting with Persons With Disability (PWDs).
The event by the ICC was to identify concerns and challenges of PWDs to be factored in the national voluntary review of the SDGs.
The national review of the SDGs helps the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) together with its stakeholders to access the country’s performance in achieving the goals.
Ms Bruce-Lyle said segregating disabled students affected their social development.
She also called for the construction of disability friendly and accessible educational facilities in the country.
“Most education facilities are not accessible to disabled students, especially the high rise school buildings. Most of them do not have facilities that support PWDs,” she stressed.
Ms Bruce-Lyle said teachers, particularly those in the regular schools, should also be trained on how to teach special and disabled students.
Dr Richard Osei Bofah, National SDGs Coordinator at the NDPC, said a challenge they faced was accessing segregated data of PWDs in terms of their detailed geographic breakdown and types of disabilities they faced as well as their challenges.
He said the data they had on them were national, saying, that made it difficult for stakeholders to plan for them extensively.
He indicated that achieving the SDG targets was not a “smooth sail” as there was more to be done, especially in the areas of youth employment, providing quality education and sanitation.
GNA