By P. K. Yankey
Essipong (W/R), November 15, GNA – The Sekondi College (SEKCO), has rolled out a pilot programme on inclusive education from the 2024/2025 academic year in the Western Region.
The nation-wide pilot programme, also selected the Agona Senior High Technical School in the Ashanti Region as the second cycle schools to implement the programme as part of their curriculum.
Already, the Navrongo Senior High School in the Upper East Region has begun the inclusive education programme as well as an integrated school being established at Mampong-Akwapim in the Eastern Region.
It is envisaged that the 1992 Constitution and the Education Strategic Plan has a goal to improve access for persons with disability, the vulnerable and the talented by 2030.
Madam Helena Mensah, National Director for Special Education at the Ghana Education Service (GES) in Accra, made this known at a stakeholder engagement on inclusive education at the Sekondi College at Essipong in the Western Region.
The engagement brought together, stakeholders from the District Assembly, Special Schools, Sign Language Interpreters, Coordinators of Special Education, students, teachers, parents, Heads of Departments, traditional rulers, Social Welfare and Human Rights workers and the media.
Madam Mensah said all the Acts which protected learners with impairments have been harmonized and would be operational by 2025.
She appealed to teachers to exercise patience during instructional hours to meet diverse needs in the classroom.
Madam Gloria Ntim, National Coordinator for Inclusive Education for the Hearing Impaired, stressed the need to avoid stigmatization associated with disability, adding that “the difference between ability and disability is a thin line hence, everyone is at risk”.
Madam Ntim said misconceptions and stereotypes about disability that deaf people could not do anything was untenable, adding “Deaf people have been able to climb to the top of the academic ladder with some being Professors at the Universities”.
She called for the provision of visual aids and gestures to enhance effective communication and asked teachers to be patient and open-minded in the classroom.
Madam Rose Ofosuhemaa Darko, National Coordinator for Inclusive Education, asked parents, teachers, and talented students to play their respective roles in the inclusive education programme.
She said disability must be an integral part of national life to allow disabled people into mainstream education.
Madam Ofosuhemaa Darko urged teachers to redefine and recast their instructional delivery in the classroom and asked that they see themselves as parents and respond to psychological and physiological needs of disability.
According to her, Sign Language Curriculum was being developed and soon, all schools would have it as part of their curriculum to have an inclusive society.
Mrs Crescentia Efua Bilson-Sai, Headmistress of the Twin-City Special School near Essipong, said the school would continue to train children with disability to feed the Sekondi College.
She appealed to teachers at SEKCO to be disabled-friendly and spend quality time with them.
Mrs Guddy Abena Kermah, Headmistress of the Sekondi College said SEKCO was ready to prioritise inclusive education on their curriculum.
Nana Abusuakpanyinli Numuah Kwaw, Director at the Western Heritage Home in Axim and PTA Chairman at the Sekondi School for the Deaf, called on the government to make provisions for the deaf after their education by giving them employment.
GNA