Patience Gbeze
Accra, Oct. 27, GNA – Chance for Childhood (CfC) Ghana, an NGO, has created mural paintings in the Greater Accra Region to promote inclusive and safe school environments for effective teaching and learning.
The mural paintings were created in 10 public schools with Early Childhood Education (ECE) Centres in the Accra Metro, Ayawaso East, Ayawaso North and Ayawaso Central Municipals.
Designed with colourful visuals and instructive messages on inclusive and safe school practices, the murals highlight messages such as ‘inclusion not exclusion, discrimination and bullying’, ‘guidance not corporal punishment’ and ‘correction not verbal abuse’.
Mr. Richard Opoku, the Global Inclusive Safeguarding Lead of CfC, said the murals formed part of the advocacy campaign on inclusive and safe school environment of CfC’s Best Start Early (BSE) Project.
The project was launched in January 2023 with funding support from the global children’s charity, Theirworld.
The charity’s mission is to give every child the best start in life, a safe place to learn and skills for the future.
“The murals are aimed at promoting inclusive practices in the schools where children with special needs, such as disabilities will feel welcome and loved by their peers without disabilities.
“This will help in reducing stigma and creating an inclusive school environment and society without discrimination,” Mr. Opoku said.
He further noted that the murals were aimed at enforcing positive learning environment where children would feel safe to learn in the classroom.
Mr. Opoku said his organisation planned to extend the murals to other public schools to create inclusive and safe school environment for children to learn and thrive.
As part of the Best Start Early project, CfC with Theirworld’s support, will train more than 50 early childhood education teachers on how to incorporate play and inclusive learning into their classrooms to support children with disabilities and developmental delays.
There will also be a screening programme at the 10 pilot ECE centres to identify and offer specialised activities for children with disabilities and other special needs.
Worldwide an estimated 246 million children experience school-related violence every year, negatively affecting school performance and leading to school drop-out, especially when the school environment was not perceived as inclusive and safe for learners.
According to Mr. Opoku the murals were designed to help address those challenges as they displayed unique and easily-accessible guide for both children and educators to understand and put the messages into practice.
Mr. Julius Tetteh Nartey, a Ghanaian multimedia artist based in Accra, who uses painting, illustration and animation to create impactful ar, was contracted to design the murals.
Chance for Childhood is a child-centered non-governmental organisation working to promote safe school environment and inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream education.
GNA