About eighty-five percent of students in the Ashanti School for the Deaf have not reported to school in the second week of re-opening.

As at Thursday, less than seventy of the six hundred pupils of the school had returned from vacation.

All basic schools have entered the second week of the new term.

School authorities say parents often discriminate against their disabled children when fulfilling the educational needs of other wards though they have the same curriculum as other basic schools.

Though the cost of education here is absorbed entirely by the government, school authorities say parents use financial difficulty in purchasing provisions for boarding school as an excuse for the delay.

Headmistress, Vida Aidoo reveals the reoccurrence of such an incident puts the pupils in a disadvantageous position when they sit the Basic Education Certificate Examination.

“At the end of the year, we write the same examination, the same time and the same period so as they delay us in the house, it goes a long way to negatively affect us”, she added.

The school, established in 1977 is the only one serving the whole of the Ashanti Region.

The school operates like all public basic schools, running the same curriculum.

Since establishment, some of the facilities are yet to be renovated.

“All the facilities in the school are old. The buildings are very old and need some renovation. We also need food items to support what the government provides”, she said.

Meanwhile, the Book Binders Association in the Ashanti Region has donated stationary worth 30 thousand cedis to the school.

 The donation is expected to improve teaching and learning in the school.

 Chairman, Peter Nsiah says, “we are donating to the school because they are in need. Though the government is doing its best, it is not enough so the need for all of us to help”.