Calling parents to school in Uganda
- Country:
- Uganda
- Organisations involved:
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- Bushenyi District Education Department
- Five units for deaf children in Bushenyi District
- Uganda National Association of the Deaf
- The International Deaf Children's Society
- Synopsis:
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In the late 1990s rural communities in Uganda were informed that education was a human right for all children – including disabled children. All over Uganda schools faced a huge increase in the number of children with disabilities attending primary school as a result of the new policy. However, specially trained teachers did not exist and the drop out rate for disabled children was close to 100%.
From 2000-2005 the local government of Bushenyi District opened five “integrated” schools in each of the 5 counties. Each integrated school has a unit catering for profoundly deaf children. The teachers in these units were ordinary primary school teachers who had an interest in teaching deaf children. They started teaching using total communication and more recently one teacher from each unit has studied for a certificate in Sign Language from Kyambogo University.
Parents and schools: starting with scepticism
When the units for deaf children were first opened, communities in the rural Bushenyi district were sceptical about deaf children’s ability to learn and perform at school (Parents had been told about their children’s right to education but had seen schools failing to handle them. There were doubts about how useful Sign Language would be and whether deaf children would actually be able to learn. Teachers felt very challenged by negative attitudes – some people would openly question why they were bothering to teach disabled children. Coming from this perspective, neither teachers nor parents could see the need or the benefits of coming together.Though Uganda was the first country in the world to officially recognise Sign Language, has a strong national association of Deaf people and some progressive legislation about the rights of disabled people, the extent to which this is implemented or has affected the attitudes of people in the rural areas is limited.
Close to 80% of the parents of the children who now attend classes in the Units have not attended formal education. It is not exceptional to find even non-disabled children kept at home in these households, due to failure to raise school fees or to the need of physical labour at the homes or farms. It is difficult to convince the mum to invest in the education of the deaf child, with the general concept that ‘these children can’t learn’, and the fact that this means losing out on labour force at the farm.
Questioning the family’s role
As time went on, teachers’ confidence in their own ability to use Sign Language and in their success at educating deaf children grew. Both teachers and parents began to see that educating a deaf child is seriously possible.With the growing belief in Sign Language and the possibilities for educating deaf children, teachers started raising the issue that when children are home for school breaks they were placed in isolation again because parents did not know their language. This was difficult for the children and also meant that their progress in school was slower.
At the same time, parents’ realisation that the school was having a positive impact on their children. Parents started to come to the Unit, often expressing to the Unit teacher or the Head Teacher that they thought the schools were doing miracles. Some even feared witch-craft. Some parents started to bring small food supplies to the schools at the start of term in order to contribute to their child’s education (in compensation of not having cash for school fees).
The idea of a parents’ group
The unit teachers – encouraged by these small signs of changes in parents’ attitudes – expressed the idea of parents’ groups in order to help families learn to communicate with their children. We started by undertaking a little research and identified two major challenges that might prevent parents groups from taking off:- communication difficulties between parents and the schools
- parents’ mistrust of schools and Sign Language.
Teachers decided to that to overcome the scepticism, parents would need to see the impact of Sign Language for themselves. At this time Bushenyi District Education Department received a small grant from the IDCS, which enabled the schools to provide a small transport refund, and a lunch for parents who decided to come to the meetings. Initially the ‘free meal’ and the ‘transport refund’ was a bigger motivation to come to the meetings than the provided Sign Language lessons. Most parents/care takers come from situations were only one meal a day is commonplace. There is basically no public transport between the villages and the schools so attending the meetings means footing, of cycling – (in exceptional cases hiring a motorcycle). The ‘transport refund’ (comparable with half a pound) is an equal amount, as a parent would have made by trying to sell farm surplus on the weekly market.
The first meetings
The first parents’ meeting were announce via the children’s ‘end-of-term’ reports, and were set on the date that children were to report back for lessons after the school break.The classroom teachers facilitated the parents’ meetings and in the beginning decided to focus on Sign Language lessons. We made the decision to choose topics, which are very close to the daily life of parents and children. So far we covered objects in the kitchen, in the house, around and in the school, shop and market, hospital, family, etc.
Parents’ responses
After about 5 meetings, the parents have gone through a real ‘break-through’. Whilst they were sceptical at first, they now show enthusiasm. Both enthusiasm for the language (they can’t get enough of SL lessons) and for their children. Whilst they still have all the normal frustration of all parents in Bushenyi District about the cost of school fees, the accessibility of services etc, the parents now really can see that their children can learn. We now get questions from participants about where their children will go after primary school!! There is such a big change from ‘my child can’t learn’, to the expectation that the child can even pass the Leaving Exams (which even 60% of the hearing children in village schools fail).Teachers’ responses
Teachers are happy to have been able to show that the school does a serious job and that they finally get recognition from the parents for the work they do – that they make their children perform. They are also happy to know that the children are better off at home now because the parents are able to communicate with them. They feel proud of having been able to show parents their skills. Instead of being looked down at (“what are you wasting your time doing, teaching disabled children?”), they now are admired (by at least some) for what they manage to achieve.Developing the group
A real turning point in the group was when a 1-week residential training with Deaf instructors (in many cases the first Deaf Adult parents ever saw) from the National Association of the Deaf was carried out at each integrated school.It was in this week, and by this programme that parents started the think beyond ‘Sign Language’ for the first time. For example at two schools the Parents decided to group themselves more officially in order to eventually join UNAD (Uganda National Association for the Deaf) and elections for chairman etc where carried out.
Plans for the future will depend on how each group makes the step from “coming to meetings and getting something” (lunch and some money for transport) to “being a group” and having to invest in it. All the 5 units which were involved in this pilot, express that they really think the groups will keep existing – but only time will tell the truth.
The continuation of the groups will depend on the initiatives of one or two parents or the teacher. The real plans are small: to make sure the groups manage to keep existing and to keep the connection between the parents and the school alive.
- Recommendations:
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- Teachers can support families to communicate with their children.
- If parents can communicate with their child, they can teach their children a lot about their home environment. This helps teachers in their job.
- Realising that their deaf children can communicate and learn at school can change parents’ attitudes. Sometimes being able to see it with their own eyes can make the difference!
- Building a relationship with their children can make parents more supportive towards teachers of deaf children in their community.
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