SW deaf students celebrate exam success

The Buea School for the deaf had 100 percent in the 2015 First School Leaving Certificate and 71.4 percent in the GCE Ordinary Level.

Since 2013, the School of the Deaf in Buea in the South West Region has been registering candidates for the General Certificate of Education, GCE Ordinary Level.

In the 2015 session, students made remarkable improvement in results, securing 71.4 per cent and 100 per cent in the First School Leaving Certificate, FSLC.

In the first year, six students registered for the GCE Ordinary Level, but nobody passed. The best student passed three subjects.

In the second year, five registered and one person succeeded in five subjects. The third batch in 2015 registered seven students, with five passing - three for seven subjects, one person for six subjects and one for four subjects. According to Ruth Bakai, Dean of Studies, the poor performance in the first two years by the School of the Deaf was because the children were treated like normal students.

“How can they participate in listening comprehension when they do not hear? They also had limited time. But in 2015, the GCE Board made some changes and added them 15 minutes after stoppage time for normal students,” she explained. The school was created in 2003 by a deaf couple, Mr. and Mrs. N’jok Bibum Aloysius, with the objective to provide quality education for deaf children.

The private boarding institution runs a primary and secondary school and a theoretical section for vocational training in Carpentry, Dress-making and Food and Nutrition. The school has about 30 teachers to teach the over 114 students and pupils.

The Buea School of the Deaf has a big problem now, which is the continuity of those who passed the GCE Ordinary Level examination. The school has no high school and according to the Director, inquiries on starting a high school show that the cost is enormous. He said this was a challenge to government to encourage inclusive education. There are no teachers who understand sign language to teach every subject, especially the sciences. It will, therefore, be difficult to include these children in normal schools, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, government offers annual subvention of FCFA 200,000 to the school; an amount the management says is insufficient to pay the tuition fee of one student or the salary of a teacher. Most of the school’s funding comes from organisations in the USA as well as individuals. The management of the Buea School of the Deaf therefore appeals to the public for assistance to enable deaf children receive education.