Hot!
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.