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A school for the deaf in turbulent waters
A teacher explains to the class using sign language. The school lacks teachers who use sign language. Photo by Rachel Mabala.
What you need to know:
With 150 hearing impaired students in one of the two schools of the deaf in the country, one would expect the government to be pouring in all the monies to make education a little comfortable for the children who rarely get this far. This is not the case with a school where deaf children had to stage a strike to be heard and still, nothing has happened yet. They lack all essential learning facilities, including teachers equipped with sign language skills.
One morning late last month, residents of Sentema village in Wakiso District were going about their usual business when they saw a group of about 150 students smartly dressed in school uniforms, armed with tree branches, sticks and books, marching to an unknown destination.
The villagers were puzzled and wondered who these students were, where they were from and where they were going. The area has only two secondary schools, an Islamic school with no incidents of strikes, and a school for disabled children, the last group of people the residents would think of doing something like this.
Some of the villagers joined the group and that is when they realised, that these were the students from the school of children with hearing impairment. The students of Wakiso Secondary School for the Deaf were striking against the maladministration and the poor living conditions.
They had drawn a plan, quietly left the boarding school premises and headed to the District Education Officer (DEO) located miles away.
“By the time we got to class that morning, there were no students anywhere around the school. We were informed later that that they had staged a strike,” narrates Christine Atim, the career guidance tutor.
The students did not reach their destination that day, because Police blocked them as they approached Wakiso town.
The point had however been made. They were tired and wanted a change.
All the school staff stay in the premises and were fully aware of the students’ problem at that time. However, little or nothing had been done to address the situation.
The school administration which was disbanded following the strike had always claimed they lacked money from the government and said the students could not expect much without proper funding. This was the reason always given, until the students felt they could take it no more, hence the strike. Established in 2004 as Makerere Secondary School for the Deaf, a private school located in Kampala, the government in its Universal Secondary Education (USE) drive took over its management and even suggested its relocation to a more spacious premise deep in the middle of literally nowhere in Wakiso.
While the move was praised both in and out, it is currently the spark of major turbulence in one of only two secondary schools for children with a hearing impairment, in the whole country.
Space constraints
With an overall population of 150 students, 21 teaching staff and only three blocks – divided into smaller partitions for the six classrooms, library, laboratory, staffroom and administrative offices, the school desperately needs more structures.
In the on-going Uganda Certificate Examinations (UCE), the space crisis is glaring.
The small Senior Two class has 33 students but due to the need for more space, it has been subdivided into two other classrooms with papyrus. So when you enter the classroom, you will find Senior Six science class students as well as the Senior Three classroom of 18 students.
The school bursar doubles as the secretary and the librarian. Depending at what time you bump into her, she serves the three roles and her office still maintains the school library that contains less than 120 textbooks, many of which date back to the 1990s.
The administration block houses the Senior Six arts class, the head teacher’s office and the office of the bursar/librarian/secretary. This congestion which the staff refers to as “confusion” has existed for the past five years, with the government promising to intervene but with no help coming forth.
Out of 150 students, 120 are private and pay Shs380,000 for school fees while the government pays only Shs40,000 for the 40 students it supports. The parents have to pay the rest of the Shs340, 000.
According to Patricia Abiro, the acting head teacher, “The school is grappling with all sorts of hiccups – administrative, financial and internal.” The school survives majorly on government support which doesn’t come easily.
“We have a list of daily activities to run but many are halted because of funding yet even parents take long to meet the financial requirements. In the end, all that matters is helping these children survive since most of them are treated like outcasts in their respective societies,” she says.
The difficulties
Although it was initially set up as a school for those with a hearing impairment, many students admitted can neither hear nor talk, a condition termed as “double impairment”.
Of the 150 students, about 10 can talk fluently, 50 can utter words with difficulty while the rest are double impaired, a situation that puts a bigger burden on the school to get more qualified teachers who have the skills of sign language.
Ms Abiro says that they hardly recruit teachers with the knowledge of sign language. And because the school is desperate for teaching staff, they tend to take any teacher.
Some of the teachers who sought anonymity revealed that working with disabled children is no easy task. They say that they took up the job because they were desperate.
“After graduating as a teacher, I was looking for a job and after searching for long, I thought of teaching children with disabilities. I didn’t have any idea of sign language and because the school was desperate for teachers, they automatically recruited me,” one of them says.
Teachers here are paid salaries of between Shs300,000 and Shs450,000 like their counterparts who teach normal students. They do not get allowances, remunerations, further training or refresher courses.
In some cases, two teachers are enrolled in one class at a go. One writes on the blackboard and explains in English while the other translates the words into sign language so that the students can grasp the topic.
Wilberforce Byakika, a Geography teacher notes that the onus falls onto the students to cope with the two instructors.
“It takes long to cover the entire syllabus and we always struggle to cover half of it, yet candidate students are examined the same way other normal students are examined during national exams.”
Currently, the teacher-students ratio stands at 1:40, even though each student requires a teacher’s attention of more than 15 minutes to understand a particular topic.
Frequent distractions in learning
The teachers also note that, students are frequently distracted.
Of the three senses (hearing, talking and seeing) required for one to excel in the classroom, most of these students only rely on one – seeing. But they use this sense in every aspect of their daily life, so dividing it amongst the numerous activities that take place in and outside class becomes a challenge.
“If you look outside, so will they, whatever you stare at, they will also stare at even if it is not necessary and capturing their attention again becomes hard. This can disorganise the entire 40 minutes each teacher is given for each respective lesson,” Byakika says.
In certain instances, teachers have to write on the blackboard first and explain in sign language, before students can transfer the notes into their books. For the teachers, who have not yet mastered sign language, they have to book a language instructor from within the school. When they are unavailable, students just copy notes and wait for one of the instructors to come around and explain.
Lack of a special curriculum
The school is also struggling to teach using a curriculum designed for normal students.
Teachers are stuck with having to first translate the ordinary mode of teaching into the sign language mode, some of which does not hold relevance. It is time consuming and also difficult to manage.
“Government needs to come to our rescue by designing a curriculum for these children, otherwise, out of the class of 20 students you teach, you are not certain that they have understood or they will understand later,” Everest Mujuni, an entrepreneurship teacher notes.
The lack of a basic curriculum for these students is a major constraint. Teaching science subjects at the school – which have their own scientific language and must be decoded into sign language is a skill the teachers here do not hold.
Students neglected by parents, worried of the future
Most of the students at school are not without dreams. Some dream of being presidents, ministers, doctors, accountants or journalists. The list is endless. One thing is common though, a good number of these students want to become social workers to help fight the stigma against deaf children.
What makes the situation harder is when some parents to these children neglect them and dump them at the school. They are not visited and some get a delay or failure in payment of school fees. For others, school serves as home because it’s where they can communicate, play with friends, share secrets and also interact freely.
Ms Atim says, “On several occasions some parents tell me that some of their children are a burden at home and are thus better off at school.
Students also worry about having to face the world after school especially if they do not excel in academics. This is common with S.6 students who worry about going out in the trying world where they are already at a disadvantage.
Nonetheless, the above misfortunes have not eroded the school from the chapter of academic excellence.
Year after year, the school’s performance has been commendable, sending students to universities on both private and public sponsorships.
A total of 22 students will be sitting for this year’s Uganda Advanced Certificate Examinations (UACE).
Despite the hardships these children go through, their enthusiasm for life and determination to have a good shot at it cannot be missed. One hopes that the government will do their part and help a school so desperately in need of it.
School Facts:
•Teacher student ratio is 1:40
•Each student requires 15 minutes of the teacher’s attention to understand well.
•School fees per term at the school costs Shs380,000.
•The government spends only Shs40,000 on each student.
•The school was established in 2004.
•The total population of students at the school is 150.
