About 400 qualified graduates with disabilities have appealed to the government to create a separate recruitment clearance for them to improve their chances of securing jobs in the public sector.
Some of the affected graduates have been unemployed for between five and 15 years after completing tertiary education.
The graduates said they had the qualifications and skills required to work but continued to remain at home because of difficulties securing public-sector employment.
The Convener of the Commission of Unemployed Graduates with Disabilities, Gilbert Boateng Mejari, said the group was disappointed after none of the 200 names it submitted for the recent Ghana Education Service (GES) recruitment exercise were selected. He said the development was contrary to the government's stated policy of reserving five per cent of public-sector recruitment opportunities for persons with disabilities.
Mejari said the group was appealing to the government to provide separate financial clearance for persons with disabilities during public-sector recruitment, arguing that such an arrangement would give qualified graduates with disabilities a fair opportunity to secure jobs without having to compete for the same vacancies as persons without disabilities.
He stressed that the affected graduates were not asking for special treatment, but for an opportunity to put their education, skills and training to use. "We are not asking for sympathy from the government. We are asking for an opportunity to use our qualifications and skills to contribute to national development," he said.
Mejari appealed to the government to act on the group's concerns and provide a clear path for qualified persons with disabilities to access public-sector jobs.
