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Deaf Education and Language-Based Curriculum: The Case of the Buea School for the Deaf
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Abstract
The big deaf community at school age in Cameroon is accommodated by more than 30 schools for
deaf. Deaf and hearing students follow a common language
-
based cu
rriculum, which aims at
developing the speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills of young Cameroonians in both
official languages, English and French. Regrettably, the language
-
based curriculum of Cameroon
gives no place to sign language, the tool o
f communication of deaf learners. Therefore, the exclusive
nature of this curriculum is a serious disadvantage to deaf students. Evidence of this contention is
found in their results. Statistics obtained from exams centres reveal that no schools for the de
af ever
went beyond 20% of pass in official exams. This is not surprising as they are taught like hearing
learners. Using the ethnographic approach, we observed class proceedings in the Buea school for
the deaf (BSD) during three months. We focused on Form
3, 4, and 5 students who were getting
prepared to write the Cameroon General Certificate of Education for Ordinary Level. Regardless of
the efforts of teachers and school administrators, deaf students experience reading and writing
difficulties in both of
ficial languages. The exclusive nature of the curriculum complicates learning
because deaf students need an alternative curriculum to develop reading and writing skills through
sign language. The concept of linguistic accessibility was
also discussed, sinc
e Cameroon Sign
L
anguage (CSL) is not yet well developed and has no official status. Presently, there are more than
three sign languages co
-
existing in Cameroon. // Paper ID 75
Subject
Country
Cameroon
Region
Africa
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Date
2019-09
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Publisher
Commonwealth of Learning (COL)