The Dominican School for the Deaf describes the recognition of sign language as a subject, as a major victory for the hearing-impaired community.

According to the 2001 StatsSA, approximately 20 percent of all disabled people in South Africa suffer from hearing loss, leaving the minority to adapt to issues surrounding education, access and unemployment.

However, obtaining the success of completing education became a little easier in 2018, when South African Sign Language (SASL) was recognised by the Department of Basic Education as an official home language. SASL was included as a subject for the first time in the 2018 National Senior Certificate exams

In November of 2018, the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training, Umalusi, welcomed the introduction of new subjects, including  technical mathematics and technical sciences. This was, according to the structure, to accommodate a wide range of learning needs within the country’s education system.

According to an article on verywellhealth, estimates state that between 500,000 and 600,000 South Africans use SASL.

Principal at the Dominican School for the Deaf in Wynberg Cindy Rutter said four pupils in the Western Cape took the 2018 sign language exam.

Rutter explained that sign language has its own grammar and structure and the students had to do bridging courses from grade 9-11.

The process of an exam was different to the usual setting, where learners worked in closed off-booths. They would watch the questions being signed and take videos of themselves signing the answers.

“They watch the question, sign the answer and then file it [on the laptop],” said Rutter.

Rutter added that one of the biggest challenges in implementing the policy was to access to resources such as textbooks. She added that everything was to be developed from scratch because there was no guideline or previous students to learn from.

Rutter noted that the curriculum was currently limited but would be developed, such as deaf poets and storytellers recording their stories for deaf pupils to study.

Rutter went on to described the accomplishment as a means of recognizing a minority group and using language as a tool for empowerment and inclusion.

“It is a great victory for us. It gives confidence to deaf people because their language is recognised,” said Rutter.

Jabulane Blose, CEO of South African National Deaf Association (Sanda), which promotes and advances the rights of deaf people, labelled the new policy “a major milestone in the consolidation of the rights of deaf people to balanced and accessible education”.

However, Blose emphasized that there will be challenges with the implementation of SASL as a home language. These include the lack of teachers and hence the need for more training of qualified educators; the inclusion of the deaf people in the development of the language and policies; the need for the subject to have its own curriculum, instead of the standard English curriculum; and  the vast number of people that are deaf and/or hard-of-hearing (partially deaf).

Umalusi chairperson Professor John Volmink said the approach aimed to reaffirm the belief that every learner could learn and achieve using their own language.

“Our constitution lays a foundation for an inclusive approach to education because it guarantees the rights of every learner to be educated, free from prejudice and discrimination of any kind,” said Volmink.

VOC/ Tauhierah Salie