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Deafness : Inclusion and Deafness Report Contents
University of Manchester, June 14th 1999
Alison Callaway: Centre for Deaf Studies, University of Bristol
6.1 The Centre for Deaf Studies in Bristol has been involved in supporting a sign bilingual project in Jiangsu province at Nanjing Deaf School since 1994. The main system of communication in Deaf schools in China is Sign Supported Chinese, so this project represents a significant change. A pre-school experimental class was set up in 1996. Initially this involved one hour per day of tuition in Sign Language taught by a Deaf teacher. Now two Deaf teachers spend a longer period of the day with the children and they are collaborating more with the hearing teachers. The class was set up in a school for Deaf children, rather than as part of the government’s pre-school programme, because historically Deaf teachers have played an important role in these schools and signing, both ‘methodically’ in the classroom and ‘naturally’ outside the classroom, is a well-established mode of communication.
6.2 China is very different from many other income-poor countries in the impressive results it has achieved in education. Before the Communist regime came to power in 1949 the literacy rate was only 20% and in 1982 it had risen to 77%. The literacy rate in India by contrast in 1982 was 36%. There is a very strong emphasis on the written word in China because it is a unifying force. It enables people who speak many different dialects to communicate through writing. Chinese is a pictographic language of 2500 pictographs which have to be learnt by rote in the first 3-4 years of school.
6.3 Key issues in China
(a) Lack of early exposure to language
Most
Deaf children start school at the age of seven, or even later. They therefore
have limited opportunities for language development in the crucial pre-school
years, with the exception of the 10% of children who are born to Deaf parents
and are exposed to Sign Language from an early age.
(b) There are many children with significant residual
hearing in schools for Deaf children
If there was better pre-school
provision and integration policies many of these children could be educated in
mainstream schools.
(c) The segregation of Deaf children and the
diminished role of the family
The role of the family is diminished when
Deaf children are sent to large, residential schools for Deaf children. Parents
of Deaf children attending the Nanjing pre-school class as day pupils have not
shown any interest in learning Sign Language. This lack of home-school contact
and communication further segregates the Deaf children.
(d) The role of Sign Language
Sign Language
is seen as an educational tool with which to learn the Chinese language. It is
not seen as a language in its own right.
(e) The role of Deaf teachers
The role of
Deaf teachers is being ‘phased out’ as the demand for higher
qualifications increases.
(f) Deaf girls are at an educational
disadvantage
Deaf girls are under-represented in schools for Deaf
children, particularly in rural areas. Their lack of access to education will
mean that they have less access to Deaf Culture.
Deafness : Inclusion and Deafness Report Contents
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22/10/1999