Father refuses to send deaf child to school

Nkoranza (B/A) Nov. 23, GNA - Mr. Kwabena Agyemang-Badu, Nkoranza district director of education, has urged parents with physically-challenged children not to hide them but enrol them in special schools.

Mr. Agyameng-Badu was speaking to a parent Mr. Osei Boateng whose child is deaf at his office at Nkoranza on Thursday and to find out the plans arranged for the future of the child as the father was refusing to send the boy to school.

The meeting between the district director of education and Mr. Boateng followed his persistent refusal to send the boy to school despite interventions by some philanthropists from the United States, who provided school kits, food and money towards the enrolment of the child at Bechem school for the deaf.

The district director expressed regret that for a year now, Mr. Boateng has refused to send his ward to the special school at Bechem and warned that his attitude constituted an infringement on the rights and freedom of the kid, adding that he could be prosecuted for that. "Every child is the property and asset of the nation so it wrong for parents to step on their rights," he warned.

Mr. Agyeman-Badu therefore advised Mr Boateng to send his boy to the school or else he would be compelled to report him to the office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). At the end of the meeting, Mr Boateng has pledged to send the boy to school in January next year.