Signs for a Good Education

(Sydney, October 18, 2013) -- Deaf children have a right to a quality education, like all other children, in a language and environment that maximizes their potential. In this video, in conjunction with a global conference in Sydney on equality for deaf people, Human Rights Watch shows some of the challenges faced by deaf children and young people, and the opportunities sign language education offers them.

For more information: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/10/17/offer-deaf-children-education-sign-language

[Teacher] My name?

Good!

Yours?

Yeah! Anne, Anne, good!

My name?

[Girl signing] Miriam.

[Teacher] Good! Good, good.

Yours?

Your name? Uh uh, you are not Anne.

My name? Hmm. Yours, yours, yours.

[Boy] Yours, yours, yours.

[Teacher] Hmm. What is her name?

[Girl signing] "Beautiful"

[Teacher] Yeah, beautiful.

She's very good in taking in the sign language.

It's very important to have because she can now be communicating to other people.

While she was at home there was no sign language being taught there.

Are you happy, happy, happy, happy, happy?

[Teacher] Yeah, happy, happy, happy, happy.
[Child signing] I'm happy to be at school.

[Teacher speaking and child signing] True.

Everyday... you... come... school.

Yes.

[Signing and interpretation] These six year olds are so happy to finally be able

to express themselves and communicate with others.

It is only by learning sign language that deaf children can fully communicate.

Today, deaf children and young people worldwide are too often denied their right to education.

This is because of a lack of teachers well-trained in sign language

and a lack of awareness by parents that their children can and have a right to go to school.

Sign language is mandatory if these deaf people are going to learn. Without it they cannot.

So it is a mother language that helps them to communicate with others.

So without this it means the communication will be at zero.

And without communication then you cannot impart skills.

Here we shall learn about the Europeans who came to East Africa...

why the Europeans came to Kenya.

Lucy?

[Signing] To get land.

[Teacher] Ok, you can say to get land.

Another one?

[Signing] They came to trade.
[Teacher] They came to trade. That's right.

Uh huh. Another one?

[Signing] Economic reasons.

[Teacher] The economic reason

is similar to the trades... whereby they came to trade. Ok?

Understand well.

It's possible for the deaf to learn anything,

but what should happen is that they should have people who can communicate to them very well.

People who can use sign language.

People who understand the way they react.

You look at their face, how they are communicating,

their body.

The teachers come here and they teach very well and I understand.

[Elizabeth Gituku] It is very important that we have learning opportunities

so that they also join the other citizens in careers

that will make them stand on their own, make them independent

and also support their own families.

[Signing and interpretation] I wish to become a teacher

teaching small children in primary schools.

[Signing and interpretation] I would like to become a pharmacist.

[Signing and interpretation] I would wish to become a doctor or a lawyer.

Majority of the colleges, over ninety percent, they actually have no support for the deaf people.

[Signing and interpretation] For example, myself, I struggled very hard to get accounting.

I had passed well in the mathematics, but there was no college which was accepting me.

[Signing and interpretation] So if I go to the university and I find that there is no interpreter,

I will look for a person who can help me to interpret

because it is hard for me to follow something which is happening without an interpreter

or that... if the teacher is not using sign language.

[Signing and interpretation] In class, we don't have an interpreter but I learn together with others.

So I sit with a person and when the lecturer is writing something or is teaching

I always copy from my friend.

If I have a question, I write it down and pass it to this person who is hearing

and will ask the lecturer to explain.

[Speaking softly] We are set back because we [our] disability [?] only affects the ear, not the mind.

The mind of deaf children is as well as someone who's hearing.

[Clapping and murmuring]

[Signing and interpretation] Being denied the human right to education in sign language

has long-term consequences.

If deaf children do not develop the ability to communicate, they are unable to learn

and get jobs and are isolated within their communities.

[Signing] I love to learn sign language.