Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Behinderung und Dritte Welt - Zeitschrift ...

Items Responses
Courses offered
by schools
Facilities
available
Procedure for
selecting
trainees
Period of
training
Basketry
29
(74.4%)
Sheltered
workshop
0
Formal
assessment
0
tings where they will have the opportunity to integrate
with other people who do not have disabilities.
After their training in competitive employment settings
it becomes easier for them to secure jobs in
such environments.
Additionally, it appears persons with disabilities are
often placed in vocational training programmes
without any type of support (Weisberger, Dahl &
Appleby, 1980). Ideally, some individuals with mental
retardation should be supported by job-coaches
and other relevant personnel to ensure their success
in acquiring requisite skills.
Besides, vocational assessment is crucial in every
individual with disabilities vocational training.
Assessment provides relevant information on the
individual’s capabilities and weaknesses to enable
special educators and instructors to design appropriate
training programmes for individual
(McLoughlin & Lewis, 1990). Also, Astin, Hemond
& Richardson (1982) reported that, some individuals
with mild disabilities even have strong prognosis for
success in post-school settings. The main problem to
further improvement seems to lie in the transfer of
training from educational contexts to adult-living
environments. Schloss, Smith & Schloss (1990)
added that, individuals with disabilities could possess
higher level of basic academic skills, but they
often appear poorly prepared to apply these skills to
the demands of community life. To address this
issue, the office of Special Education and Rehabili-
Zeitschrift Behinderung und Dritte Welt 3/2001
0-5
0
0
Batik making
13
(33.3%)
Rehabilitation
centres
0
Informal
assessment
39
100%
Farming
28
(71.8%)
Classroom
30
100%
-
6-10
0
0
SCHWERPUNKTTHEMA
Envelop making
11
(28.2%)
tation Services of the United States (OSERS) for
instance, has formulated guidelines on how to intervene
through an on-going educational effort called
transition service.
Objective of the Study
Among the objectives set was to ascertain if significant
number of persons with mental retardation
have completed training at special schools and
secure jobs in competitive employment.
Research Questions
The questions raised included:
- What types of vocational courses do special
schools offer individuals with mental retardation?
- How many individuals with mental retardation
completed their training between 1992-1997 at
the special schools in Ghana?
Methodology
A sample, comprising 36 special teachers, three
vocational instructors and 15 persons with mental
retardation was used. This sample was selected from
a population of 45 special teachers and nine vocational
instructors in the then eight special schools for
the mental retardation in Ghana. A stratified random
sampling technique was used to select the special
schools. Out of the nine, four schools were selected.
All the 36 special teachers in four schools were
included in the study. Also, all the three vocational
instructors of the four schools were used. A random
-
-
Unspecified
39
100%
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Dzorwulu 2 0 0 0 0
Twin City 2 0 0 0 0
Garden City 0 0 0 0 0
Three Kings 0 0 0 0 0
Total 4 0 1 0 0
Table 2: Responses to Questionnaire
91