Inclusive Education: Okuapeman School appeals for support 

By Jesse Ampah Owusu

Accra, Oct. 21, GNA – The Reverend Richard Koranteng Afari, Headmaster of Okuapeman Senior High School, has appealed to the government, and old students to provide the School with infrastructural projects in support of its inclusive education programme.  

“The School has been running the inclusive education module, an educational system where visually impaired students and regular students are taught together, for more than three decades now. 

“However, we faced serious challenges with the requisite infrastructure, technology and materials to support teaching and learning in the school,” he said.  

Rev. Afari made the appeal during a documentary premier of the situation in the School, with students and teachers struggling with inadequate teaching and learning materials and poor infrastructure. 

The Headmaster said their pressing challenges were poor road networks in the School, lack of disability-friendly facilities, as well as braille readers and computer systems for the visually impaired students. 

Rev. Afari said through the inclusive education module the School was able to train visually impaired students, who had become successful persons in society, some being lawyers, teachers, and bankers, among others. 

He said two past students were reading PhDs programmes at Harvard Business School and Oxford University. 

The Headmaster intimated that the School was hoping to become a model of inclusive education not only in Ghana but globally. 

Madam Regina Zillevu, a Visually Impaired Teacher at the School, stressed that the road network in the School was a challenge to them, especially when it rained, with no escort for the visually impaired.  

She said the inadequate teaching and learning materials for the visually impaired made it difficult for them to catch with other students.  

“They have to wait in the evenings for their colleagues to read out their teaching notes to them to understand whatever was taught in the classrooms,” she added. 

The School is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year and has planned series of activities to commemorate the celebration, including a health walk on Saturday, October 29, 2022, and an inter-house competition in the School on Saturday, November 19, 2022. 

The rest of the activities are a symposium on Inclusive Education on Tuesday, November 22, 2022; a homecoming and float on Friday, November 25, 2022; Celebration Day on Saturday, November 26, 2022, and Thanksgiving Service on Sunday, November 27, 2022. 

GNA