BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF EDUCATION FOR THE DEAF IN UGANDA
Kyambogo University
The Faculty of Special Education includes a Department of Special Needs Education, Hearing Impairment. Two categories of training are offered by this department:
- 2-Year training of teachers who have already qualified as Primary School teachers (Grade 3), to prepare them in the skills of handling deaf learners. They earn a Diploma in Special Education. To continue with a degree course, they are required to have taught at deaf institutions for at least 2 years. The degree course is either residential on campus or by Distance mode.
- Training of interpreters for deaf audiences. 2 years of training after ‘A’ level leads to a Diploma and after ‘O’ level to a Certificate in Interpreting (Sign Language).
Constraints encountered by the Dept.:
- The great majority of students training as teachers or interpreters at the University have to struggle to sponsor themselves. Government very rarely sponsors students for these courses. A direct consequence of this is acutely inadequate staffing of Deaf Schools.
- There are no resources to support research into Deaf Education, as there should be at this level. There is even no information on numbers of deaf children in schools or in the population.
- The focus of education is on children who are totally deaf. Children who are partially deaf are neither catered for under the normal system, nor under the deaf programmes.
- The Department needs rehabilitation and testing equipment – audiometers, hearing aids etc.
- There is also a need for audio-visual materials for teacher trainees e.g. video tapes, TV monitors. The capacity of the Department to produce some of these aids needs to be bolstered.
- There should be a concerted effort to encourage and support deaf students to train as teachers. There are very few teachers who are themselves deaf and are therefore able to communicate more intimately and effectively with deaf learners. The few deaf helpers around schools are sign language interpreters without education training. This strategy would require the training of a critical mass of interpreters and posting them to Primary Teachers Colleges (PTCs) to interpret for deaf student teachers.
Secondary Education for the Deaf
Ngora High School has for some years integrated deaf learners into its regular secondary school programme. A group of older deaf professionals (Mr. Ssenyonga, Rev Bulime, Hon Ndezi …..) tried to set up a secondary school for deaf children along Sir Apollo Kaggwa Rd. as a private effort. The school failed but the group lobbied Government, which pledged to build 4 secondary schools for the deaf, one in each region of the country. The Kabaka’s government donated land at Sentema in Wakiso District and the Government constructed the first secondary boarding school for the deaf which has now enrolled 70 students from all over the country and 12 teachers (one of them deaf), all on government pay roll . The second school promised by government is going up in Mbale.
Future Plans
- To involve the PTCs in offering deaf education to normal and deaf students;
- To encourage other Universities to add Sign Language to their Depts of Language curricula;
- Train officials from Public Institutions in Sign Language;
- Persuade the Ministry of Education to introduce Sign Language as a subject in Secondary schools.
Uganda School for the Deaf, Ntinda
Started in 1960 by Mrs. Julia Lule with the help of Miss Brown and the support of the Uganda Society for the Deaf, the Kabaka’s government and the Church of Uganda. It started in a block of offices at Mengo Primary School, moved to independent premises adjacent to Namirembe Infants School and finally moved into its own current premises at Ntinda. It has over the years been led by the following Head Teachers:
1960 – 1962 Mrs. Julia Lule
1963 – 1964 Miss Brown
1964 – 1969 Miss Patricia Collin
1970 – 1989 Mr. Ivan Matovu
1989 – 1992 Mr. Damba (RIP)
1992 – 1992 Mr. Balyejusa (RIP)
1992 – 2000 Mr. Joseph Morris [Had their first PLE class graduating in 1997]
2000 – to date Mr. Jackson Mbusi deputized by Mr. Musoke
Ntinda is a boarding school with an enrolment of 196 pupils in classes ranging from the Nursery year to Primary 7. It also maintains a Day Pre-school section twice a week for pre-school deaf children and their parents. After P. 7, children join the few available secondary schools at Ngora High School (integrated into the regular secondary school), and nowWakiso Secondary School for the Deaf. The ones who do not qualify for academic secondary education join vocational training institutions e.g. Namirembe, Kireka RehabilitationCenter and Lweza. Students whose sponsors are financially able join vocational institutes in Kenya where training is much superior. There are currently 2 deaf students at university, one at Makerere University and the other at Makerere Business School at Nakawa.
Constraints/Challenges encountered by the school
General Problems/Needs:
- The lack of teachers trained in handling deaf learners.
- Sign language (in English) is restricted to the deaf community. Deaf people cannot be easily understood by the wider audience (their families, the public) outside their community. Hence the need to spread Sign language further afield. There is need to do more research to further improve this language
- Interpreters are still too few.
- Salary scales for teachers for the deaf are inequitable. After 2 extra years and a Diploma in Special Education they are paid at the level of the regular (Grade 3) Primary School teacher.
- The vocational training available to children after P.7 is both poor and inadequate. The vocational institutions need to be strengthened.
Ntinda-Specific Problems/Needs:
- Need for hearing aids for partially deaf children. These gadgets need to be supported by a loop system that blocks external inter-fearing sounds from the system.
- A water-borne toilet system and a water harvesting system including underground tanks.
- Visual aids and equipment e.g. an overhead projector.
- They have prepared a computer room for which they need 16 computers.
- An agricultural extension support system that would, for example, enable them to donate cows/calves to families of deaf children whose vocational specialization was agriculture.
Ntinda School for the Deaf is Government-Aided and has given rise to 14 other schools for the deaf, the majority of them private. They are:
- Ngora School for the Deaf (Started by the Uganda Society for the Deaf (USD)
- Butambala School for the Deaf (Started by Hajji Bunkeddeko)
- St. Mark Primary School, Bwanda
- Mulago School for the Deaf (Govt-Aided)
- Masaka School for the Deaf, Ndegeya.
- Nancy School for the Deaf, Lira
- Agururu School for the Deaf, Tororo
- Budadiri School for the Deaf, Sironko
- Tukore Integrated School, Mbarara
- Muhabura School for the Deaf, Kisoro
- Masindi Center for the Handicapped
- Apac School for the Deaf
- Kampala School for the Deaf, Gayaza
- St. Mary’s School for the Deaf, Mityana.