CAPE COAST NORTH MP DONATES 10 COMPUTERS TO CAPE DEAF

 Rebbecca Yu & Esther Yu

Cape Deaf School has benefited from the donation of ten computers, two printers, and a complete set of band instruments from the Member of Parliament for Cape Coast North.

  

Last time, the Member of Parliament for Cape Coast North, Hon. Ebo Barton Odro was concerned about the water tank facility at school and had planned to do some road construction to the school. However the road construction have not yet started since there is a lack of budget. The Member of Parliament who visited on the day promised to continue giving pressure to the Metropolitan Assembly and hope to receive the funds needed in the near future. He said as a Member of Parliament, he could only be the facilitator, when asked about the process of road construction work.

He also planned to do regular visits to the school. On the other hand because of his great effort, the school is now enjoying free electricity.

The aim of the Member of Parliament is to utilize the talents of these students and let them become useful to the nation by providing them education. He was really proud to inform us that two disabled students were chosen to play in the national basketball team.

The Central Regional Special Education Coordinator, George Firempong gave us a broad overview of special schools in the region, Cape Coast hosts one of the two deaf schools in the country. In the current inclusive system, the visually and hearing impaired student are to be accommodated with the mainstream schools and assisted of translation by the teachers after learning how to read and write in the special schools. There are also schools for the physically and intellectually impaired students in the central region.

So far, there has only been one hearing impaired student who is able to go to university to further her studies. Comparatively speaking, higher percentage of visually impaired students is able to go for higher studies, and there are currently 35 of them doing their tertiary studies, as less professional help of sign language translation is needed, the coordinator himself, a visually impaired, has just finished his MPhil degree in the University of Cape Coast, setting a perfect example for the students to come. 

When asked of the career prospect of these students, he said “Most of the employers are unwilling to take the disabled, the hearing impaired especially faced the problem of communication, that’s why sign language should be made as an official language in the country.”

 I have also interviewed the schoolmaster, Babara Ennin.  She first came here 13 years ago as a schoolteacher, witnessed the establishment of the Unit for blind in 2001. Previously, the visually impaired children have to travel far away to Akuapem Akropong School for the blind in the Eastern Region. Blind pupils in the school go through the mainstream education; they are educated with sighted pupils in the morning.

The schoolmaster said that there is no additional burden to manage the students because of their disability. Even though sometimes the blind students come to her and claimed that the deaf students had stole their personal belongings, the schoolmaster thinks that there is stealing in the general society, and it’s a problem that even the mainstream schools have to deal with, hence it is not an extra challenge.

Miss Ennin was very happy indeed to work in the school. When she saw the deaf and blind students help each other and play with each other during weekends, she would feel joyful.

The school currently have more than 400 students, age between 5-25. They have a variety of training lessons such as fashion design, hairdresser, and blog works. However when come to employment, most organizations are still reluctant to employ impaired students, but some individual employers would still be happy to employ these students.