Call for new sign language curriculum

SPECIALISED teachers for pupils with hearing impairments have challenged Government to expeditiously introduce a sign language curriculum and standardise the subject for teaching purposes.

Specialist sign language teachers at Henry Murray School of the Deaf in Masvingo said the new curriculum will make teaching convenient.

Sign language learners across the country are operating without an official curriculum or syllabus.

Henry Murray teachers told the Presidential Advisor on Disability Issues, Dr Joshua Malinga, who recently visited the province, that deaf pupils in various schools around the country urgently needed an official curriculum in sign language.

Dr Malinga was on a tour of the province to assess challenges faced by institutions for people with disabilities.

Specialist sign language teachers bemoaned the absence of a sign language curriculum which they said was an impediment to sign language learners who might be willing to pursue the subject up to tertiary level.

Henry Murray School head Mr Kudakwashe Rugare said there was urgent need to address challenges faced by learners.

Mr Rugare said the other challenge was that practical sign language had huge interpretational gaps in various cultures, places and institutions, hence the need for its harmonisation or standardisation through an official curriculum and syllabus.

“We are glad that the Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013) now recognises sign language as an official language,” he said.

“We also acknowledge the existence of policy directions which instruct that the teaching of sign language be done at all learning institutions. But then, sign language schools have a serious teaching challenge. Most Zimbabwean sign language teachers are graduates who cannot even talk to deaf pupils because of the existing interpretational gaps of the subject.”