Education of the deaf - Inaction is a national disgrace

The Government established the Advisory Committee on the Education of the Deaf in 2002, but this was another case of the old story of setting up a committee to deal with problems and then ignoring its findings.

The optimism that greeted the formation of the advisory committee five years ago has long since dissipated.

The committee was disbanded after three years and now, two years later, people are still waiting for even the publication of the committee’s final report. As a result deaf children have become more marginalised.

Members of the National Association for Deaf People and the Irish Deaf Society are deeply disillusioned at the lack of a proper policy in relation to the deaf, especially the educational needs of deaf children. For too long deaf people were largely ignored within the education system, with the result that about 80% of deaf adults have literacy problems. That figure is an indictment of our education system.

The Irish Deaf Society contends that the authorities and policy makers are responsible for the problems, because they have been trying to retain the old system of deaf education, despite its failings.

There are only two dedicated secondary schools for deaf people in the country, both side by side in Cabra, Dublin — St Mary’s school for girls and St Joseph’s for boys. The Catholic Institute for the Deaf, which runs the two schools, contends that the current system is unsustainable.

Less than 200 of the 2,000 deaf Irish children are currently in the specialist schools, compared with 542 in 1991, and more than 600 little more than a decade earlier. The proportion of deaf children attending dedicated sign-language schools has actually declined by 63% since 1991.

An increasing number of profoundly deaf children are being educated inadequately in mainstream schools without the support of properly trained teachers. About 80% of deaf children are, therefore, receiving an inadequate education.

Large areas of the west of Ireland cannot even avail of visiting support teachers because of the shortage of trained staff. The chief executive of the National Association for Deaf People contends that the deaf children are generally quiet, so they are just being ignored and treated as if they are unable to learn. As a result they are essentially disappearing into the background.

The Irish Deaf Society argues that its research among deaf adults who attended mainstream schools has found that they experienced bullying, isolation, and communication difficulties, with the result that they developed poor social skills. Obviously a much greater policy input is necessary from the deaf community, but it is essentially been ignored by know-all do-nothing bureaucrats.

The Department of Education argues that it has an extensive range of supports in place for educating deaf children, but no confidence can be placed in such protestations while the department refuses to publish the report of the advisory committee. Instead it has passed the responsibility to the National Council for Special Education. The Department is currently dithering while it awaits the council’s report.

The bungling procrastination has gone on for seven years, while an underprivileged segment of society is suffering needlessly. Those responsible for the inaction should be held accountable, because this is a national disgrace.