Stakeholders at GNAD organized seminar ask government to give practical meanings to Inclusive Education, with emphasis on Deaf children.

Stakeholders in Education and Development in Northern Ghana have called on the government to give practical meaning to Inclusive Education, through the provision of adequate financial, logistics and human resources to sealing identifiable gaps in the teaching of Deaf children across the country.

According to the stakeholders, the rhetoric in policies rather than real implementation had yielded no dividend for us as a country; hence the urgent need to adopt CRPD-Compliant Inclusive Education in order to address the human capital deficits in national development.

The seminar which took in place in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital was organized by the Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD), purposely to create awareness among government representatives, heads of schools, Deaf educators, and disability organizations on giving true meaning to inclusive education from the perspective of Deaf people.

The participants were drawn from the Ghana Education Service (GES), Heads of Deaf Schools, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), Academia and the Media as well as some leaders from the Deaf association, in the Northern, Upper East, Savanna and the Northern East Regions.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD); which is the framework for action among member States, was ratified and signed by Ghana in 2006. Subsequently, the country passed the Disability Act and developed an Inclusive Education Policy in 2015. Although outdated, the country is in the process of revising the existing policy in order for it to respond to current needs.

Among other concerns, the discussants at the GNAD seminar in Tamale noted that leaving any segment of the Ghanaian society behind, particularly the Deaf, will not auger well for the country’s development, as this will become a blot on other achievements, whenever the country comes under peer reviews at the UN League of Nations particularly on CRPD.

The gathering thereby called for urgent actions from the State to ensuring that systems, but not concepts are developed towards tackling the bottlenecks in Inclusive Education across the country.

Making an earlier presentation on CRPD Compliance- Inclusive Education for learners and why Ghana must adopt CRPD Compliance IE, The Programme Manager at the GNAD, Seidu Musah Akugri acknowledged that when the right environment and facilities are not in place, it becomes difficult for inclusiveness to be achieved.

“The Policy, stresses on ensuring access and learning for all children, yet that isn’t the case. For the deaf; without a sign language interpreter, they cannot benefit from whatever is being communicated” he stressed.

Quoting the 1994 Salamanca statement and framework for action on special needs education, particularly communication needs of the deaf, and deaf and blind persons; Mr. Musah Akugri emphasized that; “their education may be more suitably provided in special schools or special classes and units in mainstream schools.”

The Programme Manager said “The GNAD as an association will continually advocate for equal opportunities and facilitate access to information for the deaf community, so that they can also live a dignified life.”

The Programme Co-ordinator, Recognition and Promotion of Ghanaian Sign Languages at the GNAD, Kakra Ankobiah for his part, said among other recommendations the Association wanted the government to scale-up investments in the training of teachers and instructors for the Deaf and matching these with the necessary assistance.

“We have signed unto all these beautiful Protocols and Conventions at the international level, then on the ground we have the Deaf schools, how well are they functional, how many instructors are trained and are qualified to man them? As a country we have to address all these concerns through collaborations between government, CSOs and the citizenry.” Mr. Ankobiah added.

Earlier in his welcoming address, the Northern Regional Chairman of the Ghana National Association of the Deaf, Issifu Abdul Shaku; said they are striving for inclusive education, as enshrined in the 1992, however others should rally together with them to help achieve their purpose.

For her part, Madam Medina Jullah, a retired special educationist and former Head of the Yumba Special School in Tamale, who chaired the forum advocated that sign language instructions should be introduced into the school curriculum including medicine and nursing training institutions so that health professionals can attend to medical needs of patients who have hearing disabilities.

Story By: Nelson Adanuti Nyadror |www.diamondfmonline.com |Ghana.