The Ghana Education Service and school authorities have been urged to do more to make the school environment friendly to children with physical disability.

The Ghana Society for the Physically Disabled, said everything should be done to make sure that the right conditions and facilities are in place so that children with disabilities are not disadvantaged.

Mr. Francis Amedor, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Society gave the advice when he addressed a forum in Kumasi to mark the African Union Day of the African Child with focus on the disabled child.

He said Section 16 of the Disability Act enjoins parents to send their children with disability to school.

The Garden City Special School and Ashanti School for the Deaf on the average have more than 200 children on their waiting list every year due to lack of facilities.

Mr. Amedor therefore called for the integration of the schools into the normal school system to reduce the pressure on the special schools.

He said children with disability have potentials and talents which must be tapped through education.

He said it was also important to provide children with disabilities with assistive devices to enhance their education.

He lauded the African Union for instituting the Day and pleaded with leaders on the continent to work hard to tackle socio-economic and cultural practices that tended to discriminate against the physically-disabled.

Mr. Johnny Osei Kofi, a Member of the Management Board of the Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation Studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, called on the nation’s leaders to see to it that all public buildings and other facilities become disability-friendly.**