Wa Methodist School for the Blind celebrates Golden Jubilee anniversary

Right Reverend Dr Robert Aboagye-Mensah, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, has pledged the commitment of his Church to the education of disabled children.

He said the Methodist Church, which is one of the pioneer churches that started establishing educational institutions for disabled children, was inspired by the compassion Jesus showed to the Blind and sick people during his ministry.

Reverend Dr Aboagye-Mensah was speaking at the climax of the Golden Jubilee anniversary celebration of the Wa Methodist School for the Blind at Wa on Saturday.

The school, which has a population of 200 pupils in both the Primary and Junior High schools, was established by the church in 1958.

He said he was impressed with the improvement on infrastructure in the school since his last visit four years ago and thanked the government for making that possible.

He said the Methodist Church would continue to complement government's efforts by providing opportunities for less fortunate people to get access to formal education.

Reverend Dr Aboagye-Mensah appealed to philanthropists to help make the children modern by providing the school with ICT facilities and donated a 2,220-gallon capacity poly tank to the school to help address its water problem.

Mr. George Hikah Benson, the Upper West Regional Minister, appealed to the Ghana Education Service to review the content of the teaching and learning in the school to bring about improvements in their education.

He appealed to stakeholders to work harder to address illiteracy in the region which, although is experiencing a decline, is still very high.

He said illiteracy was 73.4 per cent in 2000 but this was reduced to 53.6 in 2003 and could have declined further in the last three to four years.

Mr. Sampson Akurugu, Headmaster of the School, said the school needed accommodation as some of their dormitories were being used as classrooms.

He said Ford Foundation planned to establish a Braille Press in the School to produce Braille publications for the Blind and appealed to the government to tar the streets in the school as well as street lights.