The Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Special Schools (COHESS), Mrs Immaculate Atoriya, has said that government’s policy that all state institutions use the pre-paid meter would not be feasible in some institutions. She said the pre-paid meter system would not work in institutions such as the special schools for the deaf, adding that there is also the fear that monies would not be made available at the right time to such institutions to enable them purchase power since their students do not pay school fees. Mrs Atoriya noted that due to the ban on employment, the special schools were unable to employ house mothers and labourers to wash and clean the children, saying things were becoming difficult for them to cope with. Mrs Atoriya said this at the 30th Annual Conference of Heads of Special Schools in Tamale on Tuesday. According to her, the Conference would explore ways by which children with special needs would have maximum benefit of ICT to promote teaching and learning, adding that in this era of technological advancement, children with special needs ought to be the first group of people the government should think of in the provision of computers. Regrettably, she noted, the first batch of lap tops were distributed and not even one special school for the deaf benefited. “If you visit any special school and you see computers, they are from NGOs”, she said. Mrs Atoriya commended Child Reach, an NGO working in the Savelugu/Nanton District, for sponsoring 10 deaf Senior High School (SHS) graduates for the untrained teachers programme. Ms Rosemond Blay, the Director of Special Education Division of the Ghana Education Service, said most of both the teaching and non-teaching staff of the special schools were not performing satisfactorily. She impressed upon the heads to ensure discipline in the schools. She also said the Division had started a national exercise to restructure staffing needs in all the schools, asking the heads of such schools to build dossiers on their staff. Mr Moses Bukari Mabengba, the Northern Regional Minister, urged parents whose children had disabilities not to treat them differently or hide them in their homes but rather develop special interest in their education. He also urged the district assemblies which had been selected for the establishment of assessment centers for people with disabilities to expedite action on their construction. Source: GNA