About 824,797 (39.4 per cent) of persons, five years and older with difficulty in performing activities have never attended school compared to 18.7 per cent for that of persons without difficulty, according to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) report.
Among persons with difficulty in performing activities who have never attended school, 40,838 are of school-going age (5 to 17 years), with an additional 10,668 children aged 5 to 17 with difficulty in performing activities attending school in the past.
The report released to mark International Day of Persons with Disability and copied to the Ghanaian Times, explained that difficulty in performing activities refers to having some level of difficulty or a lot of difficulty in performing the activity, or cannot perform the activity at all in at least one of the following domains: sight, hearing, physical (walking or climbing stairs), intellectual (remembering or concentrating), self-care, and speech.
The GSS said 929,501 persons of 61 years and older with difficulty in performing activities were illiterate i.e. cannot read or write with understanding in any language.
This figure represents almost (44.8%) of that population group compared to a quarter (25.3%) for persons without difficulty.
Nationally, there are 29,593 children aged 5-17 years with difficulty in performing activities who are orphans i.e. have lost one or both parents.
The percentage of orphans with difficulty in performing activities who have never attended school (16.7%) is almost twice the percentage of Children without (8.9%) whiles 28.8 per cent orphans with difficulty are illiterate relative to 20.8 per cent of those without difficulty.
More than one-third (33.1%) of persons with difficulty in performing activities are multidimensionally poor relative to 29.1 per cent of persons without difficulty. Three-quarters (76.4%) of multidimensional poor persons with difficulty in performing activities are in rural areas.
Among persons 15 years and older with difficulty in performing activities are multidimensional poor relative to 29.1 per cent of persons without difficulty.
Three quarters (76.4%) of multidimensionally poor persons with difficulty in performing activities are in rural area.
Among persons 15 years and older with difficulty in performing activities that are employed, seven in every ten (70.9%) are self-employed without employee(s) compared of five in every 10 (55.6%) of those with difficulty.
The Ghana Statistical Service released these statistics on its International Day of Persons with Disabilities which commemorated annually on 3rd December.
An earlier publication, the 2021 PHC General Report Volume 3F on Difficulty in performing Activities was released in December 2021 and is available to download from www.census2021.stats.ghana.gov.gh.
BY TIMES REPORTER
