Students of the School for the Deaf in Wa in the Upper West Region have called for the provision of interpreters at various health facilities to enable deaf patients relate their problems to medical personnel.
They said that was necessary to make it easy for such patients to communicate their health problems to health officials, to enable them to obtain quality health care.
They made the call at the celebration of this year’s African Union (AU) Day of the African Child, which was attended by students from four basic schools; namely, the Saint Andrews, T.I. Ahmadiyya, School for the Deaf and the Model Junior High School.
Carrying placards, some of which read: "We Need Better Education”, "Education Makes Our Future Bright”. "Free Relevant and Compulsory Education for Children in Africa"; “Free and Quality Education for All Children in Africa"; "We Need a Library in Our School" and “Parents, Teachers Help Children to Be Educated In Africa", they marched through the principal streets of Wa and later converged on the School for the Deaf.
The event was sponsored by Plan Ghana in collaboration with the Department of Children, and had the theme: "A Child-friendly, Quality, Free and Compulsory Education for all Children in Africa".
In a communiqué read on behalf of the students, Miss Ivy Kpankpari, a second-year student of Wa Model JHS, spoke about the inadequate infrastructure in the various schools, which posed a serious challenge to academic work and appealed to the government for assistance.
In his keynote address, the outgoing Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Bede Ziedeng, said education was the foundation of a child’s development and stressed that practices such as child trafficking and child labour should be addressed to promote the rights of children.
He said children who migrated to the southern part of the country in search of non-existent jobs became drug addicts and were impregnated prematurely.
He stressed that it was the responsibility of parents and teachers to teach their children their “culture and values to give them a sense of identity and confidence”.
In her welcoming address, Mrs Abobo Siddique, acting Regional Director of the Department of Children noted that despite the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), the introduction of Capitation Grant and School Feeding Programme, meant to boost school enrolment, a number of school-age children in the region were still at home and urged all stakeholders in the education sector to help address the problem.
She also appealed to school authorities to allow girls who became pregnant while they were still in school to continue their education.
Source: Daily Graphic
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