The Balobia Integrated Special Primary School at Navrongo in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality is in urgent need for support to avert collapse.

The school since its inception in 2006 to cater for children with special needs has been housing the children in an old dilapidated teachers quarters converted into classrooms.

The school which admits children with intellectual disabilities is not under the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) but shares the meals with the Balobia primary school located on the same compound.

The school whose motto is, “Disability is not inability” is challenged with numerous problems including infrastructure, teaching and learning materials, specialist teachers and portable drinking water among other things.

When the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the school, it observed that most parents and guardians who had children with such conditions in the area felt reluctant to send their children to the school because of the current conditions there.

Madam Perpetual Assorow, Headmistress of the school, confirmed this in an interview with the GNA on Monday at the school’s premises in Navrongo and lamented the conditions there.

She said most parents had declined to enrol their children into the school due to its underdeveloped state, saying “some parents even say such children have no value in the family”.

Madam Assorow disclosed that the school has 56 pupils on roll, and said only 11 are in school, adding that most parents complained about the distance and location of the school which discouraged them.

Madam Assorow called on the residents to enrol their children with special needs in school and appealed to authorities at the Ghana Education Service to convert the school to mainstream and urged government to place it on the GSFP and give it a boarding status.

She further called on the government to construct classrooms and boarding facilities to create enabling teaching and learning environment for the special children.

This, according to Madam Sorrow would allow parents who stay far from the school enrol their children to enable the school provide them with the necessary training, “as all were equal before the eyes of God”, she added.

Mr Stephen Ania, a Special Educator who is National Service personnel in the school, noted that most of the children were admitted with Cerebral Palsy, Moderate intellectual disabilities and Down syndrome.

He added that some of the children with these conditions find it difficult to speak and understand, while others appear physically challenged.

Mr Ania said the school runs lessons including daily living skills such as greetings, bathing and how the children could do things all by themselves. Other areas of training he added were how to interact with people in society and basic numeracy and literacy.