According to a study ‘Challenges faced by Deaf Children in Accessing Education in Malawi’,published in the Deafness and Education International in 2021,(https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14643154.2021.1952374) many deaf children in the country are struggling in mainstream classrooms.
“However, the field remains confused, particularly since many children who are deaf are struggling in inclusive mainstream schools. Most special schools for children who are deaf are boarding schools, which are too expensive for poor families,” said the report.
The study found that due to isolation and loneliness in mainstream schools, some children are withdrawing from these schools and joining schools for children who are deaf. Furthermore, according to the study, most teachers in mainstream schools lack proper understanding of the unique educational needs of children with hearing disabilities.
Ms. Chale, whose master’s degree is in Inclusive and Special Education and works as Disability Inclusion Consultant with Save the Children International in Malawi, how the use of a manual note-taker for students with hearing disabilities during her undergraduate smoothened her studies.
“I copied notes when sitting close to my classmates and this is the strategy that helped me quite a lot. The lecturers were also very helpful and shared with me notes or pamphlets well in advance,” she said.
Perhaps the biggest challenge Ms. Chale encountered during her schooling was the lack of sign language support. Although she had the advantage of being able to speak, it was still difficult to lip-read teachers throughout a whole lesson because they often walked up and about during class or sometimes spoke while facing the board.
Some improvements
Looking back from her time in school, Ms. Chale says there have been some slight improvements. For a start, there are now some qualified and specialist teachers in the field of deaf education, although not many. Also, there has been some government support towards those with visual disabilities.
However, it has emerged that some of the ‘specialist’ teachers were only taught basic day-to-day communication in Malawi sign language, which is not necessarily conducive for classroom discourse.
“There is nearly nothing done for the students’ future transition to secondary school. There is still no support and no education materials available to them in schools,” she said, adding: “the pass rate of learners with disabilities in primary and secondary schools continues to go downhill.”
Ms. Chale commends organisations, national and international, advancing inclusive education in the country but would like them to employ more people with the disabilities. She herself has previously worked as a specialist teacher at a girl’s high school before taking up her current post. While in college, she was also part of the martial arts team coming in first in the female categorycompetitions in 2007.
“The most memorable events while pursuing my education was the support rendered to me in secondary school and university. I had very supportive friends,” she added.
Malawi, for the first time, recently held a national Spelling Bee competition for children who are deaf to promote and encourage inclusive education among special needs students. Malawi is among the first African countries to hold such a spelling bee competition.
A total of six schools for children with hearing disabilities participated in the competition organized by the Malawi’ Association for the Deaf, with financial support from donors.
At the Ministry of Education in Malawi, the department of Inclusive Education is committed toachieving inclusive education in the country. The chief education officer, Peter Msendema, says the department is developing a sign language manual to train more teachers in the country.
Source link : https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/june-2024/advocating-inclusive-education-children-hearing-disabilities-malawi
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Publish date : 2024-06-14 16:16:51
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