Deaf community alarmed by poor performance in PLE

When PLE results for the year 2022 were released, many pupils were jubilant and hopeful that they would be joining the secondary schools of their dreams. In the deaf community however, it was a different story. PLE results for deaf pupils have for years remained the same with little or no improvement, with increasing dropout cases. Also, the situation was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

One teacher for the school
Twalib Ayub Ali, a board member of the Uganda National Association of the Deaf (UNAD) representing the youth, says the deaf community is profoundly disappointed the same way he was in 2008 when he performed poorly in PLE. He remarks that one of the reasons for his failure was that, there were no sign language teachers in his school.

Twalib attended Arua Primary School which was entirely for hearing children. 
“On the days when the sign language teacher was absent, I would join class with the hearing children but I barely understood anything but I copied notes from the blackboard. I would just sit and stare at the teacher because I could not hear what he said,” Ali says.

They only had one teacher who would teach for all the classes. When the results came, the latter had scored aggregate 30. 

Despite his poor performance, his supportive parents took him to Mbale School for the Deaf. Since there were fellow deaf students and the teachers taught in sign language, his performance slightly improved.

“I felt like my studying had been greatly simplified because the instructors taught in sign language. I scored aggregate 50 at Senior Four and at A-Level, I had 10 points and admitted on a government scholarship at Makerere University, ” he explains.

He is now in his second year at the university pursuing Social Sciences and has an interpreter to help him catch up with the hearing students. While Ali has beaten all odds to pursue his education up to university with support from UNAD, many other deaf children have dropped out. 

Priorities matter
Robert Nkwangu, the executive director UNAD, says they are concerned about the continued poor performance of deaf pupils in PLE and their increasing dropouts from school.

“The educational needs of deaf people are not prioritised while allocating resources and it is increasingly clear that deaf education is a privilege for the lucky few and those who manage to complete primary school level have underperformed academically,” Nkwangu remarks.

In the recently released results, a total of 2,257 pupils with disability sat  exams and those with hearing impairments performed poorly. Out of the 263 pupils with hearing impairments who sat for the exams, no one got Division One. Only 50 pupils were in Division Two, 41 in Division Three, 56 in Division Four  and 116 pupils were ungraded. 

In comparison to other disabilities, 80 of the 461 partially blind learners aced a First Grade, 209 in second division, 71 in third division, 59 in fourth and only 42 were ungraded.

The challenges
According to research by Tonny Eyoku, a teacher and executive director Deaf Action Uganda, deaf children fail because they have no exposure to sign language at an early age. Most of the deaf children start learning sign language when they are over seven years of age.

“Deaf children should be introduced to sign language at an early stage so that they get a better understanding of it. When they start school, they can then be taught English. Parents should support their children and start communicating to them in sign language,” he says.

Nkwangu remarks that the very few teachers well-conversant with deaf education, are poorly remunerated and frequently transferred to different schools. He thinks that they should be remunerated like the science teachers to motivate them because they do a great job. 

There is general lack of learning material in accessible formats for the deaf children. During lockdown, there was learning material on televisions and radios but the deaf students were left out. The radio was not an alternative for them. 

“Many deaf children were left out. There was no educational material for them so they just stayed home without any help. We speak and understand visually. The learning materials should enable us to ably see and attach meaning to what we see. Our eyes are the ears; therefore, the material should be changed into visuals to enhance our learning.”

Many schools are now trying to be as inclusive as possible and are recruiting interpreters, but Robert Ssewagudde, the chairman UNAD, “it is tiring and impractical for them to focus on the teacher and the interpreter at the same time. Pupils in primary schools need to entirely be taught by a teacher who knows sign language.”

Esther Nagudi, the principal education officer in charge of special needs education at the Ministry of Education, also attributes the poor performance of the learners with hearing impairments to late enrollment and that the learners have a challenge in comprehending the language used in the classroom.

Nkwangu also reveals that, “the lack of natural sign language in teaching and assessing learners means they are unable to attain the best quality education  the same way other people can. We are dealing with issues of inaccessible material, parental neglect, teacher capacity and limited knowledge on delivery approaches suitable for deaf learners.”

The way forward
According to the UBOS 2014 report, there are about 1.8m deaf people in Uganda but this is believed to have increased over the years. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG4) aims at ensuring inclusive education and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Ali remarks that there is a need to streamline sign language instructors and interpreters into public service.
 “We appreciate the government’s commitment on special needs education and the specific provision of amenities to support deaf education. However, the failure to provide full time professional Uganda sign language instructors for the deaf pupils and failure to include the instructors and sign language interpreters on the public service payroll violates deaf persons’ rights to quality education,”he says.

He is grateful that the government is talking about inclusive education and that sign language is recognised by the Constitution of Uganda. There are several primary schools for the deaf but only two secondary schools for the deaf. 

“Most of the laws are on paper and there is no implementation. There is a gap in the policies. The government has a programme but it is not impacting us. The Ministry of Education and the partners need to consult UNAD and the deaf community on how to improve the curriculum and the plight of deaf education,” he says. 

Concerns
Robert  Nkwangu, executive director Uganda National Association for the Deaf(UNAD) remarks that the very few teachers well-conversant with deaf education, are poorly remunerated and frequently transferred to different schools. He thinks that they should be remunerated like the science teachers to motivate them because they do a great job. 

There is general lack of learning material in accessible formats for the deaf children. During lockdown, there was learning material on televisions and radios but the deaf students were left out. The radio was not an alternative for them. 

“Many deaf children were left out. There was no educational material for them so they just stayed home without any help. We speak and understand visually. The learning materials should enable us to ably see and attach meaning to what we see. Our eyes are the ears; therefore, the material should be changed into visuals to enhance our learning.”