Bishop Bemile calls for curricular for children with special needs
Loho (U/W), Oct. 31, GNA – Most Reverend Paul Bemile, the Catholic Bishop of the Wa Diocese, has appealed to teachers in special schools to develop curricular for teaching children with special needs.
He said such a curricular should be specific and strictly targeted at addressing all the education needs of children with special needs.
“If this is effectively done, teaching such children will be much easier than ever and their potentials will be fully extracted”, he said.
Bishop Bemile said this during the handing over of some structures for the use of children with mental disabilities at Loho in the Nadowli District.
The structures, which include a three-unit classroom block, a two-unit workshop, a dormitory and an administrative block, were sponsored by Wild Geese a Netherlands based non-governmental organisation (NGO).
Bishop Bemile commended Mr. and Mrs. Manders, initiators of the project, and stated that education was a fundamental human right and every child no matter his or her condition had the right to education and should not be denied that right for whatever reason.
He said children who were challenged in one form or the other should not be referred to as disabled but rather “differently able” because they had some form of potentials hidden in them and it was only through education that such potentials could be unearthed.
Bishop Bemile suggested the need for teachers in such special schools to undergo special training to enhance their capacity to effectively manage these differently able children in a way that would help bring out the potentials inherent in them.
Mrs. Annie Manders, Operations Manager for Equal Opportunity Fund (EOP) thanked the Wa School for the Deaf for its keen interest in educating children with special needs.
He also thanked the chief of Loho community for accepting to release land for the building of the school.
She was however disappointed with local authorities for their inability to extend electricity to the school despite several promises to that effect.
Mr. Cezar Kale, the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, said people with disabilities were the most marginalized in the Ghanaian society.
He said it was refreshing that modern facilities were being provided to equip them with the requisite education to enable them live meaningful and fulfilled lives.
He assured Mrs. Manders that electricity would be extended to the school very soon and efforts would be put in place to build a dining hall and a fence wall around the school to ensure maximum security for the children.
Mr. Iddrisu Mahama, the Upper West Regional Director of Education, said for some years now the Wa School for the Deaf and the Mentally Challenged had been grappling with space and accommodation, adding that the handing-over of the structures would ease the burden on the few structures.
Mr. Mahama advised parents who had such children with special needs in their houses to bring them to the school.
Mr. Abu Kansangbata, the Nadowli District Chief Executive, said the school would get attention from the Assembly.
GNA