Dear Friends,
Around the world, less than 2% of the world’s 34 million deaf children have access to learning in sign language. 95% of deaf children have their first exposure to a sign language when they start school. These are giant gaps in equitable, quality early childhood care and education to meet the unique linguistic and developmental needs of deaf learners.
In Kenya in April, together with colleagues in the Deaf community, including the Federation of Deaf Women’s Empowerment Network (FEDWEN), we kicked off our 33-month, multi-country project in Deaf education under the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Knowledge Innovation Exchange (KIX). In close collaboration with Open Development & Education, Kentalis International Foundation, and Busara, we named this project Scaling Inclusive Early Learning with Deaf Children. The team is researching the impact of sign language rich learning; and in tandem, we are exploring the how of scaling—that is, factors that enable or impede scaling the impact in different dimensions in Kenya, Malawi, and Rwanda. Perspectives from the Kenya kickoff:
“We’ve talked about inclusivity for years, mostly from a gender perspective, but there’s still more to address. This project highlights the needs of deaf children and the environments they need to learn. It’s a powerful step toward true inclusivity.”
Mercy Rurii, Program Officer, International Development Research Centre of Canada
“Our main goals are to scale sign language-rich environments, build capacity for ECD teachers and caregivers, and gather evidence to inform language of instruction policies in Kenya, Rwanda, and Malawi.”
Georgine Auma, Director of Studio KSL at eKitabu
“I appeal to the government to support deaf teachers by offering them a “Learner Support Assistant Course” and by deploying them in schools. This will help ensure that in the future, deaf learners have the opportunity to thrive and excel.”
Liverson Mwakesi, ECD teacher, Kwale School for the Deaf
We welcome you to check out the Evidence Library we’re building around this work to share what we’re learning, invite feedback, and build community. The Evidence Library is a repository with tools and resources for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. If you are interested in Deaf education or you work in how children learn, first language acquisition, bilingual learning, or literacy development, we hope you will find something of value in the Evidence Library. Please feel welcome to contact us with your reactions, ideas, or ways to improve what you see there.
Warmest regards,
Will