The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is threatening to disconnect power from the Ashanti School for the Deaf for owing an\u00a0accumulated electricity bill of GH\u20b5 80, 127.96.<\/p>\n
The school authorities say they are financially handicapped and are therefore incapable of settling such a whopping amount.<\/p>\n
The Headmaster of the school, Ofosu Boachie, who expressed worry over the disconnection threat said when it is carried out, the pupils will be unable to communicate or study at night.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”aMl9cPZwOgSWGsea4oKsDp28fvZEsa6U”]The school\u2019s only source of income is government feeding grants of GH\u20b5 2.20p per pupil per day, which has, in recent times, been increased to GH\u20b53.3 but is yet to be effected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the feeding grant we rely on. It does not come regularly, that is what we manage to do maintenance, buy fuel and fire wood etc. We can\u2019t even pay our creditors\u2026they are always on us and we have to lie to them all the time,\u201d Mr Boachie said.<\/p>\n
He said though the school has a standby generator donated to it by Sokpo, a non-governmental organization from the Netherlands, the authorities could not afford to pay the GH\u20b5 75 worth of fuel required to run it.<\/p>\n
The cooks use fire wood, though the school has a Liquefied Petroleum Gas tank which has been empty for nearly a year due to lack of funds.<\/p>\n
The 595 disability students are living in bed-bugs-infested dormitories for two years and the authorities say they are financially weak to fight the pest-ridden creatures, because the charge for the fumigation process is GH\u20b5 1,200.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe face serious challenges with the frequent light off, and some of the children ease themselves indiscriminately around the dormitories and the bathrooms at night because they cannot communicate to their colleagues to accompany them for nature\u2019s call,\u201d a teacher said on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation becomes more serious when a child is sick at night, because how will he or she going to communicate or who can see the sign of he or she to find out what is wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly 45 pupils are crammed into one classroom designed for 15 pupils due to acute deficiency in classrooms.<\/p>\n
A teacher said the classrooms are not carpeted and the walls are not acoustically treated to repel noise as required in any normal school of the deaf and so interferes with teaching and learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir living conditions are horrible, the dormitories and the classrooms are overcrowded. We have to put chop boxes in the classrooms,\u201d another teacher said.<\/p>\n
Dozens of the children sleep on uncovered mattresses placed on the bare ground as there are no wooden slabs fixed on the three-in-one iron beds.<\/p>\n
These compel the children to squeeze themselves into the limited space.<\/p>\n
A room designed for 10 three-in-one beds, contains about 20 beds.<\/p>\n
Government infrastructural support has ceased for years leaving the school largely dependent on individuals\u2019 support and benevolence of non-governmental organizations.<\/p>\n
According to the officials, although the school had 15 of the government free school uniforms distributed last year, they lack chalks, registers and vocational items.<\/p>\n
The school\u2019s administrative block, a six-classroom block and fence wall, are the only government assisted structures.<\/p>\n
The rest of the institution\u2019s structures including dining hall were put up, notably, by Sokpo, Japanese and German governments, local residents living in Canada and with intermittent support from the Otumfuo Education Fund.<\/p>\n
The authorities say but for lack of infrastructure, the school could have admitted more than 40 children on the waiting list.<\/p>\n
Parents\u2019 frustration for not getting admission coupled with social stigmatization and inability of using sign language to communicate with their children account for, dozens of children with disabilities feared locked up at homes, the school bosses noted.<\/p>\n
The school which started with 24 pupils in 1977 now has 337 boys and 258 girls, who are largely deaf or dumb and deaf, some intellectually challenged, blind and deaf-blind.<\/p>\n
Nearly half of these children have lost both of their parents or belong to a single parent, said a senior tutor who pleaded anonymity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: GNA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is threatening to disconnect power from the Ashanti School for the Deaf for owing an\u00a0accumulated electricity bill of GH\u20b5 80, 127.96. The school authorities say they are financially handicapped and are therefore incapable of settling such a whopping amount. The Headmaster of the school, Ofosu Boachie, who expressed worry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":48746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[43,38,16,61],"yoast_head":"\n