Journalists must advocate for the rights of persons with disability in the country, the Senior Programmes Manager/Global Safeguarding Lead for Chance for Childhood (CfC), Mr Richard Opoku, has stated.
He said when their rights are protected and not stigmatised against, they would contribute their quota to the development of the country.
“There was an inclusive education policy which was launched by the Ministry of Education in 2015, and since the launch children with disability were able to get the right support,” he added.
He said this at a day’s training workshop on disability and inclusive educations for selected journalists in Accra yesterday.
The training was aimed at building the capacity of the participants on disability and inclusion of children with disability in mainstream education.
The programme was organised by CfC, a child-centered Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), which seeks to promote inclusive education and safe learning for children in vulnerable situations.
He mentioned some of the challenges facing children with disabilities as stigmatisation, lack of funding for inclusive and special education, inadequate assessment centres, inadequate data on disability, limited teacher capacity on disability.
“The government needs to increase funding for inclusive education and the need for training of teachers on how to teach children with disability,” he added.
Mr Opoku stressed the need for screening to be conducted for children with disabilities in order to build their capacity.
He called for frequent sensitisation of parents on disability issues to ensure that children were catered for effectively.
Mr Opoku said the training would be ongoing to ensure that journalists were abreast of issues of disability.
He urged the participants to put into use the knowledge they have acquired.
Some of the journalists who spoke to the Ghanaian Times commended management of CfC for the training, stating that it would go a long way to broaden their knowledge and reporting on disability issues in the country
CfC is an international NGO that operates in five African countries, including Ghana. It started its operations in Ghana as a child-centred organisation to promote inclusive education.
BY ANITA NYARKO-YIRENKYI
