Education system is failing our Deaf children

Potted History

Resident since 1959 originally from Gorton, Manchester. Married Dorothy 1950.
Member of United Reformed Church, Elm Road. Served as radio officer in Merchant Navy 1941 - 1946, then a career in Engineering until 1990.
Born 21st March 1925 of profoundly deaf parents, considers British Sign Language as first language - was acting as interpreter from very early age for parents and their deaf friends. Since retirement from Engineering has become a CACDP Registered trainee sign language interpreter. He obtained the Certificatein British Sign Language Level 3 (Advanced) and is now studying hard to become fully qualified as soon as possible.

Present Activity.

He covers a wide range of assignments : Social Services, Medical, Legal, Conferences and Tribunals—wherever and whenever interviews are carried out. There is a chronic shortage of sign language interpreters; consequently he is kept very busy. He is deeply involved in the Deaf community and is an active member of the Manchester Deaf Centre socialising with old friends and meeting new ones.

Hobby Horse

"Education of Profoundly Deaf children - born deaf or pre-lingually deaf (i.e. became deaf before they could learn to speak). The distinction is important - children who have partial hearing or have become deaf after they have acquired spoken language are in a totally different category. There are 26,000 profoundly deaf children in our country today and their education is painfully inadequate, most of them (97%) are condemned to attend mainstream schools - with or without their parents consent - which means they share lessons with hearing children and are subject to peripatetic teaching, mainly in English language with limited sign language added on. They are isolated by the difference in communication; they become stressed - struggling to follow lessons. They do not develop academic skills to their full potential.
The disgusting fact is that they leave school at 16 with a literacy age of 8, which indicates that mainstreaming is failing our Deaf children, They have the right to be equal to hearing children and to have the same level of education. If this was happening to any other minority group there would be uproar and outrage! The answer lies in Government recognition of British Sign Language as the official language of Deaf people in the UK - and setting about establishing, as a matter of urgency, new model Special Deaf Schools based on Bi-Lingual Education - BSL and English - to provide a clear pattern of high quality education for Deaf children.
It can be done. It is being achieved in Scandinavia - where their sign language is officially recognised and Deaf children are educated to the same standard as hearing children."

Photograph - Receiving the Certificate from Beverley, Lady Annaly
(Founder of "Sign" homes for deaf people with learning difficulties)