Ashaiman, Sept. 20, GNA -- The Special Education Division of the Ghana Education Service (GES) is to train the disabled in order to equip them with employable skills for the competitive market.

Mrs Diana Kwadade, Acting Director of the GES in-charge of Special Education, who dropped the hint, therefore, urged parents to give the programme their fullest support to ensure its success.

She said this in a speech read for her at the Open Day celebration of the State School for the Deaf at Adjei Kojo near Ashaiman, over the weekend, under the theme: "Disability is not inability; Educate the Deaf."

Mrs Kwadade said in all, eight special schools have been identified and selected nationwide, to offer technical/vocational programmes, and urged parents to give the scheme the necessary support.

The Special Education Acting Director appealed to all well-meaning Ghanaians to initiate programmes that would help uplift the sunken image of the disabled in society, "the disabled are endowed with capabilities and talents as anybody else, and that with our support they can be trained to become self-supporting."

Mrs Kwadade urged stakeholders in education to see the upbringing of children as a collective responsibility, and for that reason, meet regularly, to draw up comprehensive programmes to give children the needed education for their total development.

To support their children's education, she urged them to provide their basic needs.

The Acting Director of Special Education used the occasion to reiterate the call on Ghanaians to join the crusade against the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Mrs Vide Drampson, Greater-Accra Regional Director of Education observed that the days when persons with disabilities were treated with inhuman touch, had given way to compassion, love, empathy, and above all, decent education thus enabling them to lead independent lives.

Mr John Vital Fefoame, Headmaster of the school noted with satisfaction that the early completion of the numerous on-going projects in the school would be very crucial to the kind of quality education offered to children in the school.

Mr Fejoame appealed to the Ministry of Education to provide the school with new vehicles to help solve its acute transportation problem.