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Our educational system took another limelight last week. The focus this time was on a two-day national forum to decide on the “quantity” and not the “quality” of the programme offered by the senior high school system. But while on that, must we also not begin to look at one area of education which seems to be forever forgotten – the education of children with special needs.
People from various facets of life — organisations, academia, social researchers, as well as child psychologists — come from far and near to New Horizon special school to see, study and research into cases of autism and children with intellectual disability.
Many years ago, there were no such well structured institutions in this country to provide for such kind of research. The fact is that children born autism were put to death or abandoned in a bush or by a stream because the primitive belief then was that they were abominations from the gods and therefore not fit to live among humans.
Gladly, it has taken the shining example of 80-year-old Mrs Salome Francois, a woman who has spent a greater part of her active life caring for and educating children with intellectual disability and autism to overturn the tables. She has counseled thousands of parents and families to live with and accept autism and intellectual disability.
The story of the New Horizon Special School started with the unfortunate case of Mrs Francois’s first child, Helen. Born a normal beautiful and active baby, 22 months into her very young life, Helen’s simple ailment of what was diagnosed by doctors as malaria ended up with her being paralyzed on the right side of the body and a loss of speech soon after some doses of chloroquine injections were administered to her.
It was not until some four years later in America where the husband was on a year’s study leave that doctors examined Helen and discovered that she had encephalitis (brain injury) as a result of which she became mentally retarded. Not until then, the parents had gone through anguish, pain and heartbreak rushing from one treatment to the other on the instructions of the doctors they were consulting.
With the help of a special school which focused on special care and individual attention, Helen was able to read and write giving her parents the hope that with special education, children with the same condition as Helen could improve their lot. Thus the beginning of a purpose- built establishment started by a mother and supported by two other parents and friends from the American Women’s Association – New Horizon — a name adopted from a special school in America.
Registered as a voluntary charity and a non-profit making NGO, the New Horizon special school and schools of its kind are a great answer to the neglect and harm families and the society have visited on children who through no fault of theirs enter this world with intellectual disability and autism.
Looking at the way we as a society perceive any form of disability, it is probably not surprising that since the inception of the special school in early 1970, no successive government has offered subvention or any form of assistance to New Horizon irrespective of the critical role it is playing in the lives of intellectually challenged children.
The school depends on fund raising events organized with parents’ support, donations and sponsorships since its modest school fees are inadequate with majority of the children coming from needy homes and sometimes one parent families. By the nature of its set up, the New Horizon special school needs specialist teachers and careers to meet the special needs of the children.
The school has two departments, academic and vocational. The academic department provides basic education on an individualized basis for children between the ages of four and 17 years who have some developmental delays.
Refreshingly, some of the children are able to graduate into normal schooling from here.
The curriculum cuts across reading, mathematics, music, painting, computer studies, dancing, religious and moral education.The adult students with special needs are however given vocational training in skills such as basket weaving, crafts, Christmas cards with local themes, batik tie and dye beadworks, foot and bar stools. These items are sold to the public and the children are given some allowances to make them also have a sense of achievement in life.
If this is how God calls each one of us to serve, then Salome Francois has reached the pinnacle of her service to her God. Recently turned 80 years, this affable, soft spoken woman has nothing to show that she has crossed the octogenarian mark. Despite the trauma endured with the condition of her first child and the stressful duty of caring for thousands of other children with special needs, Salome Francois still has incredible strength, energy, passion and unique pleasantness to run the day to day activities of New Horizon.
Radiating with beauty and some inner satisfaction on the day of her eightieth birthday, she agreed to let me inside the school that she is so much passionate about and also talk to me about what has worked and could have worked better. I asked how she has managed it all to this day.
Her simple answer was: “but for the God I am serving and the strong support of my husband Eddie and children, I wouldn’t have come this far.” Mrs. Francois has won so many international, local and national awards and has attended many international and national forum and presented papers on intellectual disability and autism. She was a member of the national committee that drafted the national policy on disability between 1995 and 2000.
Having accomplished so much and endeared her to so many hearts, I asked this special mother whether it was not time for her to finally quit and retire for good. Her quick response was, “but who will take care of the children?” Indeed, the 165 children currently on roll at New Horizon school are topmost on her mind, day and night.
Admittedly, the Salome Francois connection in the education of children with learning disabilities and autism is as strong today as it was when it started in 1972. The school which has helped thousands of intellectually challenged children reintegrates into families and society needs public support badly.
As my visit confirmed, the school has reached a stage where it needs to open up and make special education affordable and accessible particularly to those children who are currently locked up in homes because families do not see the need to educate them. If basic education can be made free and compulsory at this time of our development, then please, let the same facilities be extended to special schools such as New Horizon for the sake of the disadvantaged children.
The Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, the Special Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service and the Department of Social Welfare need to take up the case of special schools for autism and children with mental disability and assist with the education, training and welfare of the children.
For the general public, this is an opportunity to extend a helping hand by sponsoring a child in need through school. Salome Francois has shown that when given that special education, care and individual attention, these disadvantaged children can have useful and meaningful lives. We can no longer afford to neglect their education.
Credit: Daily Graphic/ public agenda
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