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Don’t turn Special Schools into ‘dumping grounds’ …Parents told
Fi III
The reason why children with special needs are taken to special schools is to bring them up under special conditions by specially trained personnel.
However, it appears some parents have other reasons apart from what is stated above.
Investigations by The Spectator has revealed that some parents and guardians have turned these special schools into ‘dumping grounds’, where they take their wards ostensibly to be educated but ends up abandoning them.
These parents refuse to visit the children throughout the period they stay at the Special Schools in order to avoid the stigma of being treated with contempt by unfriendly members of the society for having such children.
The Chairman for the Parents Association of the Tetteh Ocloo State School for the Deaf at Tema, Nana Barima Fi III, confirmed this in an interview and admitted that it was a challenge the association is facing with.
Nana Barima Fi III said these parents and guardians also do not participate in any activity aimed at promoting the welfare of the children.
But in his view, times have changed for any parent to feel bad for having special children, adding that, “it was rather important to draw these children closer to them and encourage them to be the best they can.”
He added that it was a matter of concern that a meeting of about 300 pupils with special needs would attract just about 50 parents.
Sadly, attempts to get such parents and guardians to have a change of behaviour have not been successful.
He further said parents and guardians who had shown interest in whatever the pupils do over the years would testify about the changes in their wards, giving credence to the saying that, ‘disability is not inability.’
“We need to encourage the children so that their talents will blossom to give their best to make the world a better place,” he appealed.
He recommended that children in the various special schools to be given an opportunity to choose any vocational or technical skill even at the basic school level so that they would be at a better placed to decide whether they would go to a secondary school or a technical or vocational school on completion.
From Dzifa Tetteh Tay, Tema.
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
