Perils of educating a deaf child

Mount View, a learning institution for the deaf, lies about five kilometres from Bvumbe Market in Thyolo. At first glance, the institution seems quiet.

But once inside a Standard Three class, the situation is different.

It is a noisy class—one where every pupil wants to be noticed by the teacher, not just through flapping the fingers of a raised hand, but also attempting to make a loud sound.

As each of them struggles to get their teacher’s attention—who uses words and signs for instruction—the image an ordinary eye gets of the class is that of chaos.

In fact, it is easy to conclude that deaf classes are a show of complete chaos. Yet that is not the case. There is order in this chaos. And experts such as Judith Kandiwo, a teacher at Mount View, say the chaos is just part of the learning process.

“Our aim is to make sure that these learners bring out the little voice in them. So, we deliberately create an environment for them to try hard to bring that voice out.

“This is why you will find that some deaf people are able to speak a little, while others cannot. Those who cannot speak are pupils who have grown up without any formal training on how they can explore the little voice in them,” she says.

Because every pupil needs individual attention in class, teaching a deaf child, experts say, is not easy.

“For instance, a class of 13 at a deaf school is equivalent to a class of 130 pupils at an ordinary primary school. One pupil at a deaf school is equal to 10 pupils at an ordinary school. The recommended teacher student ratio is 1:6,” says Kandiwo.

She explains that at a school for the deaf, teachers do not just facilitate learning as is the case with ordinary schools, rather they engage each pupil at an individual level.

“The classroom situation demands a lot from us as teachers. We need to train the child with skills of acquiring information, and how to use the language. All this, as you can see, is demanding,” she says.

A 2009 baseline study by the Malawi National Association of the Deaf (Manad) shows that there is an increase in the number of people with hearing impairments in the country. In 2004, a study by Deaf Action estimated that there are not less 200 000 people with hearing impairments in the country.

Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities—which Malawi is signatory to—calls on government to ‘ensure that the education of persons, in particular children, who are blind, deaf or deaf blind, is delivered in the most appropriate languages and modes and means of communication for the individual, and in environment which maximises academic and social development’.

However, the challenge children with hearing impairments face, according to the Manad baselines study, is access to education. There are now five schools for the deaf in Malawi. Three schools are funded by the Montfort Missioners (also known as Brothers of Christian Instruction). They include Mua School for the Deaf, Mountain View School for the Deaf and Mary View School for the Deaf. The other two, Embangweni School for the Deaf and Karonga School for the Deaf in the Northern Region and are funded by the Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central African Presbyterians (CCAP).

Government supports these schools by employing teachers to teach there. The population of the deaf, however, has grown. Some schools need to be expanded as the existing infrastructure can only cater for a limited number of learners.

For instance, the 2009 study, reveal that Mount View School for the Deaf in Bvumbwe only caters for 187 pupils while Karonga School for the Deaf has 39 children and is still growing.

“Most schools only provide primary education. Secondary level education is not accessible to the deaf. The deaf are often put in inclusive settings where the method of teaching is designed for hearing children. Deaf students usually don’t learn much and are left to study on their own,” reads the report.

There is also a question of special needs teacher education in the country.

Kandiwo and 23 other teachers were trained at Montfort College. But for years, the country has not done much in producing special needs teachers. At Chancellor College, education students only learn a component of special needs education in their fourth year. However, there is hope as the Catholic University has an entire degree course on special needs education.

Another problem, according to Malonje Phiri, Manad programme officer currently studying in the UK, is the lack of parental acceptance of their child’s status. He advances that parents and guardians seem not to attach value to their wards.

“There are learners whose parents view disability as a curse. As such, they do not report their child’s case to social welfare so that the child may stand a chance of enrolling for school. They turn up when the child has come of age. It is difficult to start training a child when she is over seven years,” he explains.

He adds that some parents hardly support their children.

“We have cases where some learners come from their home carrying nothing. We have to fetch for their clothing, soap; almost every basic necessity. We really need support from everybody. We welcome everything that people can bring to the help of these young ones, whom some of them are orphans,” complains Kandiwo.

—TOMMORROW: Should sign language be confined to special needs schools only. How do people with hearing impairments communicate with the wider society if people do not know sign language?