MY VISIT TO SAVELUGU

“When on earth is this gap between the child with disability and the normal child going to be covered in Ghana?” I asked myself. All too soon week eight is here, and we are grateful for how far we have gone. We have had a good time with each other and the people we have been working with especially the Savelugu School for the deaf, we enjoyed every bit of the time we spent there.

On Wednesday 2^nd march, 2016, we went as a team to the Savelugu School for the deaf to pay them a visit since we are at the Northern Regional Resource Centre for Persons with Disability. We were received by the staff so well and the deaf children were so amazing when they tried to welcome us using signs. They were so happy to see us try to sign also. Though unfortunately, we met the absence of the head teacher.

We started to have an interaction with the teachers and their story was so sad, it provoked one to start thinking of becoming a policy maker. My group has been appointed to conduct the baseline research and so we were asking all the questions. We asked the teachers how they were seeing their work as special teachers, and they all said it was challenging. Here are some of the reasons they gave, as the name suggests “special school”, that makes the children there have a special case, and so it takes a special care to cater for them. Due to the communication barrier they are facing, the teachers said it is very challenging to deal with them. One teacher said “if you teach them something today and they go for a break and return, then you ask them again, he/she will just wipe the forehead, meaning I have forgotten”. Instead, they learn new things easier when they are practical, a teacher said. Because of their inability to hear, it becomes much easier when they can touch and practice whatever picture you are creating or trying to teach.

When we asked about their facilities, they shared their plight about that also. They said the government has been helping them with almost all their facilities and also some of the parents are also helping them. But for me, I think those facilities were not the best for such children, looking at their number and those facilities. Comparing that school as a boarding to another boarding school for normal children, for me it is not the best it could be.

The question now is, why do the children in ‘special’ schools have the worse facilities compared with those ‘normal’ schools have the best facilities? I leave you to judge.

Mpagya, Thank You!