Caroline

In attending Deaf Way II in Washington D.C. last summer, one key goal was to attract many deaf people from other countries and to empower them with goals to improve the lives and education of deaf people in their own countries. Thousands deaf people from developing countries and Africa came.

In America and Europe, we are fortunate to have good education programs for deaf students with choices in elementary, secondary, and vocational school and opportunities to go to college. In developing countries, opportunities to advance beyond elementary education for deaf children are limited.

A story appeared on the internet about lack of education for deaf children in central Africa. Uganda was the first country to have a school for the deaf for primary education in the central part of Africa in 1959. However, there is very limited opportunity to attend a secondary or vocational school in Uganda.

Deaf education would consist of elementary education for some deaf children to learn sign language and basic education skills in reading, writing, and math. In Uganda, about 1,000 deaf students take the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) every year to enter one or two secondary education programs for deaf in public schools in Uganda.

The interesting thing about this examination is the government only offers the test at two centers across the country. Some deaf children from poor families would travel hundreds of miles to take the test. Some primary schools tried to help out by providing the test at the local school.

The situation became so bad in Uganda that Uganda Society for the Deaf started a vocational school at its own headquarter several years ago. The school has over 80 deaf students.

Uganda National Association for the Deaf (UNAD) said that Uganda has provided very little money for secondary or vocational education for deaf students. The government asked the association to consider the idea of setting up secondary schools for the deaf across Uganda.

There are plans to build the first secondary school for the deaf in Uganda with 4 classrooms, offices and a boarding section. Money is the issue as the association does not have the money to build the school, to hire staff and to train teachers.

Deaf people in Africa said there are very few teachers who know sign language. There is no training program to teach teachers to sign or teach deaf people to become teachers.

Perhaps, Gallaudet University can set up a small school in Africa to train deaf people to become teachers.

There were proposals to set up deaf education units using interpreters in secondary schools across Uganda. Deaf professionals pointed out that interpreters are unreliable and feared deaf education will suffer.

In the meantime, parents have been asking teachers where to send their deaf children for secondary or vocational education. Deaf students often asked their teachers where to go after finishing primary education.

The teachers often tell the deaf students that they do not know. Often, many of these deaf students will go nowhere. Education for them stopped at the primary education level. How lucky we are in America to have a choice to go to high school, vocational schools or even college.