Ghana’s Free Tertiary Education Policy Sparks Concerns Among Parents of Children with Disabilities

Accra: The launching of a policy by President John Dramani Mahama, which ensures that all fees for persons with disabilities at accredited public tertiary institutions are fully covered by the state, has been met with excitement and fun-fair within the disability community in Ghana. This policy was part of the Government's reset agenda, which seeks to realign national priorities toward justice, equity, and opportunity.According to Ghana News Agency, there is a group of persons greatly affected by disability who continues to murmur despite the excitement by the rest. The community of parents and caregivers of persons with disabilities, especially children with disabilities, continue to wobble despite this promising policy. A discussion that ensued on the community Platform of the Inclusive Family Alliance, an organization that champions inclusion, especially for parents and caregivers of children with disabilities, ended with a question-how does my child benefit from this policy?Patience Dela, a mother of a child with cerebral palsy, shared her sentiments, stating: "My child is even unable to access basic education despite the free basic education and the inclusive education policy, so I do not even think of secondary education, let alone tertiary education." There are many children with cerebral palsy, autism, and other neurological conditions who are simply unable to access even basic education, and those children are usually locked up in homes.Adwoa, another mother of a child with cerebral palsy, expressed: "I know that my daughter living with cerebral palsy is very intelligent. Even without formal education, she can navigate tech devices, tablets, laptops, and the rest. My daughter can download apps, navigate YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok, but she is unable to access education in Ghana because she has movement and speech challenges. How can I even begin to imagine that my daughter will grow up to benefit from the free tertiary education for persons with disabilities policy?"In essence, children with c omplex disabilities, those with multiple impairments, high support needs, or conditions requiring specialized care, often face compounded barriers long before tertiary education and may never be able to enjoy this good policy. There are some children with cerebral palsy, for instance, who are nonverbal and do not have good movement, but if you study them, you can know that their intellect is intact. For such children, the educational system usually finds it difficult to assess them.Adwoa suggested the government needs to create bridging programs or alternative pathways into tertiary institutions. Some parents have proposed the creation of day centers where parents of children with disabilities could keep the children to enable them to work and earn a living, providing them respite from continuous caregiving. Others emphasize the need for government-subsidized caregiver training programs to have people take on caregiving as a career or profession.Yet, others are also asking if parent caregivers themselves can be empowered to bring solutions, as many are motivated by their situation to do research and suggest solutions. Can such parents, by virtue of how they are affected by their children's disability, benefit from educational scholarships to pursue higher education? There is a need to elevate the voices of caregivers in policy designs.As it stands, the free tertiary education policy for persons with disabilities may only benefit those who have already overcome systemic barriers, potentially reinforcing inequality within the disability community. President Mahama has stated the need to reimagine inclusion, not as charity but as strategy. The parents' community has agreed that the most marginalized remain invisible not because they lack potential, but because systems fail to see them. Visibility is the first step toward justice, as the most marginalized remain invisible without support, representation, or opportunity.