An Advocacy Committee Member of the Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD) has said the University of Ghana (UG) is among the few public tertiary institutions that have designated a special office to cater for the welfare of students with hearing impairment.

Speaking in an interview on Prime Morning on Wednesday, February 9, Kakra Ankobia indicated that there are fewer interpreters employed in tertiary institutions to assist deaf learners in their studies.

“At least for the University of Ghana, I know that they have a special office that has sign language interpreters who assist the students who are deaf in the University but we don’t have a lot of interpreters there. You don’t have it in other universities; not all universities have that. Some private universities have not even thought about that.”

“Sometimes, the students have to pay from their pockets, the services of an interpreter to come and sit through the lecture with them. It means that the interpreter is leaving whatever they are doing, so you need to make sure that they are well compensated after helping you to understand the whole process or whatever is happening during the lecture,” Kakra Ankobia highlighted.

He called on the state to channel more funding into the education of such students to ensure their wellbeing and educational success.

“I was looking at the Constitution and I found that the Constitution states that all children should have equal access to education. I looked at the deaf schools, and schools for persons with disability then I look at the private schools.”

“…look at the number of teachers they have. Do we have same qualified teachers teaching in schools where you have persons with disability? No! So how do we say we are giving them equal access to education?” he quizzed.