Hyperactive, but clever as a fox

K. is a 12 year old boy who has just joined the school at Edwenase as no other school would keep or accept him. He is a hyperactive boy. Mannerly, bright, well-groomed with a supportive family background and a private tutor, he is a day student at the rehabilitation centre.

He has not been assigned to learn a trade though, as he needs almost full-time attention from the time he arrives at 7am, till the time his relative collects him at 2pm. 7 hours constant attention. No wonder the schools his parents brought him to were unable to deal with his needs.

Of course it's easy to blame the schools as being discriminatory, but if there is no special needs assistant to help K. keep focussed and not run around the place, the education of 30 or 40 others is negatively affected.

So K. has been pretty much landed into a school where those who do not fit into the 'normal' education system must go. There are a 6 volunteers at our centre. But die to the programme of work we have devised in Maths and English for the other 55 students, the time we have to spend in preparing worksheets, recording our work, giving remedial lessons, etc. it is really hard to give K. the full attention he needs.

So what provisions are being made to cater for people like K? Well, given that little or no funds have been granted by the Dept. of Social Welfare to aid the school I work at, in addition to the current staff not having been paid for the past 4 months, K. will continue to be much neglected by the Ghanaian education system until such time as provisions are made for him to have a full time needs assistant.

How many more K.'s are there throughout Ghana, abandoned by schools who cannot manage their special needs? Maybe one thing to be thankful for is the fact that he has not being drugged to slow him down or institutionalised in a prayer camp to expel his 'demons', as some of our students have unfortunately experienced in the past, all because they have 'spiritual disability'.

And now that he has come with just 5 weeks left in this semester it looks unlikely that our efforts will have any lasting effect. With a long-term programme of care and education I have no doubt that K. would be able to learn a trade and have meaningful employment in the future that would allow him to become at least semi-independent. But there is little hope that kids like K. will ever benefit from Ghana's oil profits or World Bank loans.