21-year-olds in KG1, the depth of Volta’s deaf education neglect

Their only ‘crime’ was being born with a special need, at least that’s what their parents, community and society make them feel.

But to keep them at home in the name of ‘looking for spiritual help’ till these children are very old before they begin school, is something nobody, regardless of their weaknesses should suffer.

Children born with hearing impairment, blindness and in some cases, multiple disabilities are made to suffer for a condition they had absolutely no control over.

It is hard enough to know that you have to work extra hard to achieve your dreams with a special need but it is even more traumatic when the people around you mock you, reject you and kill your dreams; a constant reminder of their weakness.

A visit by GhanaWeb to the Volta School for the Deaf in Hohoe revealed the extent to which neglect, and stigmatization is affecting the lives of bright and intelligent children with special needs.

While some of these children are neglected and left at the mercy of Non-governmental institutions and benevolent individuals who adopt some of them and take them to school, others are kept home by parents who simply will not accept them with their needs and don’t even bother to see how best they can help them integrate into society.

Headmaster of the school explained to the news team how the school’s Kindergarten has to deal with teenagers with hearing impairment because they are brought to the school when they are already old.

“As early as four years, if the child is able to part from the mother to be isolated, it is accepted, but the funny thing about this area is that even 12 years, the child is in KG. The parents are looking for a cure, they want to reverse what God has created, they go round round, people deceiving them, and finally when people disappoint them, they come back.”

Amen Bright, a KG2 teacher also narrated how even 21-year-old’s end up in her class.

“The parents did not even hear about a school for the specially challenged, with that age group they are already in the house, nobody cares about them”.



Vacation is another problem for these children because they are unhappy moving from a relatively friendly environment to a rather ‘hostile’ one.

“Some also, when they vacate, they are going home, they start crying, when they go, they will not be accepted…the moment that child is born, societal slur, sometimes they even run away”.