DEAF SHS GRADUATES NEED SPECIAL DISPENSATION (PAGE 18)

THE headmaster of the Sekondi School for the Deaf, Mr Samuel Torbor, has made a passionate appeal to the West African Examination Council (WAEC), the Ghana Education Service as well as the authorities of higher institutions to offer special dispensation to students from the school who complete senior high school (SHS) with low grades in English and Mathematics to enable them to pursue further education.
He expressed regret that most often pupils from the school who completed SHS with grade eight in English and Mathematics did not get admission into the higher institutions to pursue further education and that had made most of them school dropouts.
Mr Torbor made the appeal when the management of the Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) presented a cheque for GH¢2,000 to the school to assist in the education and training of pupils of the school.
He said the acquisition of language was through listening and speaking, and that pupils from the school who were deaf from infancy lacked the necessary capacity and vocabulary.
“Most of them have completed SHS and become dropouts, since they could not pass the English Language and Mathematics to qualify them to pursue higher education,” he lamented.
Mr Torbor stressed that the deaf were very intelligent and creative with many ideas, and that if they were assisted to pursue further education, they could also contribute meaningfully to the transformation of the society and the country as a whole.
He said special education was very expensive and that the pupils were on full government scholarship.
The headmaster said the school, which was founded in 1971 with initial enrolment of 11 pupils, now had 274 pupils.
The Managing Director of the Enterprise Insurance Company, Mr George Otoo, stressed the need for effective collaboration between private business entities and the government to produce the expected results.
He said the company had selected the education and the health sectors to provide the needed assistance, since those sectors were crucial in the country’s socio- economic development.
“We chose this school because it is special to us and also the pupils have the capacity to develop”, he explained.
“As we do business in Takoradi, we have to give part of our earnings back to the society, ”he added.