What’s the fate of the deaf, blind?

May 01, 2007

SIR — With the increased lack of awareness and limited knowledge on the role of Sign Language interpreters in the education of deaf and deaf-blind children countrywide, deaf children are excluded from the universal secondary education.

SIR — With the increased lack of awareness and limited knowledge on the role of Sign Language interpreters in the education of deaf and deaf-blind children countrywide, deaf children are excluded from the universal secondary education.

Many parents have raised concern on the way the USE programme is expected to benefit their deaf and deaf-blind children because the concerned authorities have not explicitly addressed the issue of employing sign language interpreters in these schools to support their children in post-primary schools.
Many deaf children were left out during the recent head-count and enrolment for universal secondary education in most schools countrywide because of communication gaps in sign language and brail. The government needs to train more special needs teachers and interpreters in post-primary schools if they have to benefit in the programme.

Many primary school head teachers and parents of deaf children in and outside Kampala have also raised concern over the plight of their children who performed well in the last PLE and UACE.
They claim that the Ministry of education has not bothered to recruit or include sign language interpreters and brail instructors some of whom double as secondary school teachers, on the pay roll to support these children under the USE programme.

Primary Schools like Ntinda school for the deaf in Kampala, Bwanda in masaka, Nancy school for the deaf in Lira and Wakiso secondary school for the deaf, among others, pass out deaf candidates every year but most of them do not join secondary school because schools and institutions of their choice do not have budget allocations to cater for the services of sign language interpreters.

Ngora High school in Kumi district this year produced three profoundly deaf students among the best candidates in eastern region to join Makerere and Kyambogo universities but they may also fail to realise their dream because there are no permanent interpreters employed in these universities to support them!

Thanks to the schools which have been paying these interpreters from the parents teachers association (PTA) funds for six years. The head teachers request UNEB to send sign language interpreters to assist deaf children during the periods of final examinations.

They also appeal to institutions of higher learning to consider recruiting sign language interpreters if they have to realise education for all and equal opportunities for such children with disabilities. However, the head of the newly established Uganda National Examinations Board disability desk office at Kyambogo UNEB branch, also requests head teachers to submit timely reports concerning candidates with disabilities to assist them in planning.

Julius Patrick Omugur
Kyambogo University

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});