Government presents vehicles to Special Schools

Accra, Dec. 21, GNA - The Government on Thursday presented 37 vehicles to selected special schools in the country with a call on heads of such institutions to do more to improve upon the academic performance of their students.

The vehicles made up of 12 33-seater buses and 25 pick-ups would help to improve management/teaching and learning in the schools, which include the Akropong School for the Blind, Eastern Region; Yumba Special School in the Northern Region; Cape Coast School for the Deaf, Central Region and Three Kings Special School in Volta Region.

Papa Owusu Ankomah, Minister of Education, Science and Sports, who presented the keys of the vehicles to the Heads of the Schools, expressed worry that less than one per cent of school going-age children with special needs had access to education in the country due to the attitude of some parents and the general public. He said most parents refused to send their children with disabilities to school while others refused to provide them with their basic needs and rather spent their money only on the healthy children.

"This negative attitude of some parents and the general public must change for the better especially in a country of ours which requires all people to contribute to the economic development of the nation." He said the Government was fully aware of the important role such Special Schools continued to play in the education of children and adults with disabilities. It would, therefore, continue to show its commitment by providing the relevant tools and resources towards such education. Papa Owusu Ankomah said as a first step the infrastructural needs of most of the Special Schools were being met by way of renovation of existing structures and construction of new ones including classrooms and dormitories with funds from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).

Mr Ankomah also presented three buses to the Odorgonno Secondary School in Accra; Mankranso Secondary School in the Ashanti Region and Busunya Secondary School in the Brong Ahafo Region for their commitment to academic excellence and moral discipline. He said within the 2007/2008 academic year, Government would allocate not less than 200 vehicles to community-based and deprived schools that exhibited moral discipline. Mr Henry D. Ahiable, Headmaster, Akropong School for the Blind and Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Special Schools, commended the Government for the gesture but asked that money for their regular maintenance should made available.