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Sign language is set to become official in South Africa – how this will help education in schools for the Deaf

Sign language is set to become official in South Africa – how this will help education in schools for the Deaf

SOUTH African Sign Language is set to become the country’s 12th official language. Parliament approved a constitutional amendment in a bid to “promote the rights of persons who are deaf (sic) and hard of hearing”. CLAUDINE STORBECK, Professor and Founder of the Wits Centre for Deaf Studies, University of the Witwatersrand Claudine Storbeck, founder and director of the Wits Centre for Deaf Studies at South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand, explains what the move could – and should – mean for Deaf education in the country. What is the educational environment today for Deaf learners in South Africa? There are…
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Bilingual education can work in South African schools: here’s how

Bilingual education can work in South African schools: here’s how

FROM the fourth year of schooling, the majority of South African schools teach all subjects in English only. The devastating learning consequences of this for children who speak African languages at home have been compellingly captured in the documentary film Sink or Swim. These consequences include a lack of conceptual understanding and little identification with the content. In South Africa, there are 12 official languages, including South African sign language. The constitution allows that any of these languages may be used as a medium of instruction in schools. But only English, and in a minority of schools Afrikaans, is used…
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