Why deaf learners failing Uneb exams 

Whereas the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) provides utmost support to children with hearing difficulties during examinations, these candidates at the primary level are increasingly posting low results to the dismay of the board, writes YUDAYA NANGONZI.

The recently-released 2022 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) was yet further proof that deaf candidates are consistently failing in national examinations compared to other categories of special needs.

Uneb figures point to more Special Needs Education (SNE) candidates registering to sit PLE but a few joining secondary education. At least 832,654 candidates from 14,691 centers registered for PLE in 2022 compared to 749,761 in 2020.

There was an increment in the registration of candidates with special needs from 1,599 in 2020 to 2,436 in 2022. This is the largest rate of increase ever. Of these, 1,153 were females and 1,283 males. The board registered 2,436 learners with special needs of various categories such as the blind, deaf, physically handicapped, and dyslexics. Of the 2,436 registered candidates, 55 missed the examinations.

According to the Uneb results, of the 263 deaf candidates, none got a first grade. At least 50 passed with division two, 41 in division three, and 56 in division four. Deaf candidates also came in second position with ungraded candidates at 116.

These candidates cannot be admitted to senior one – Uneb rules indicate that such ungraded candidates should repeat P7 as they will not be eligible to register for Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations later. For the other categories, 68 registered candidates were physically handicapped, blind 41, partially blind 461, dyslexics and those needing transcribers 646, and those needing extra time only were 778.

At the division one level, candidates that were partially blind had the highest number of first grades at 80 while 209 passed in division two. They are followed by those needing extra time only with 66 and 290 in division two, dyslexics and those needing transcribers 56 and 384 in second division, the blind got four and 21 in division two while the physically handicapped had three and 40 candidates in division one and two respectively.

According to the examinations officer for SNE in charge of deaf candidates at Uneb, Esther Irene Nagudi, there’s an urgent need for all stakeholders including parents to support deaf learners.

“You realize that most of the deaf learners join school late because parents decide later to send them to school. There’s already a gap that has been created by going late to school. There are also few deaf schools for pre-primary and as a result, the development of sign language at this level may not be as adequate as the other learners,” Nagudi said.

She said Uneb has sufficient staff to support the learners but the drive for inclusive education by the government has proved a great challenge for deaf learners. They are increasingly left behind by teachers due to the overwhelming numbers of children in mainstream schools.

“My appeal to the government is to recruit at least a sign language interpreter per school so that whenever a regular teacher is stuck, they can consult with an interpreter to help learners. At the secondary level, the numbers are easily managed – a reason they perform better than at the primary level,” she said.

WHY THE LOW GRADES

A seasoned special needs teacher who preferred anonymity faulted all stakeholders for neglecting deaf learners thus leading to low grades in national examinations. This is in addition to the education ministry’s failure to fulfill its unending promise of remunerating SNE teachers.

“Most parents are ignorant about their children’s disability and by the time they enroll them into school, they are overage. So, acquiring sign language at a later stage may not seem easy to the child. I have seen children aged 14 years sitting in primary one or nursery section. How do you expect them to cope?” the teacher asked.

The teacher added that some parents tend to children reporting late for school because they are deaf.

“There are children who go for a month or a term without reporting back to school yet such learning gaps affect performance. Parents with a deaf child with multiple disabilities, tend to focus more on the other siblings. Some of these children in boarding section are merely dumped at schools without basic needs, no visitation days, and this psychologically affects the level of concentration for the learners,” the teacher said.

Commenting on the curriculum, the teacher explained that the content at primary level is wide with obsolete content like teaching sounds to deaf learners.  

“People speak and sign differently. For a statement such as “What do you want to eat” in sign language, it will be signed as “eat what”. It becomes hard for children to adjust to the grammar expected of them while writing PLE as many are used to shortcuts or abbreviations.”

The head of the hearing impairment and sign language interpretation studies department at Kyambogo University, Dr Sam Lutalo-Kiingi, called for the usage of Uganda sign language as a mode of instruction for deaf learners.

“I have long proposed to Uneb to give deaf candidates the option of writing their responses or using sign language in exams. This is something that can be tested. Deaf candidates may write the correct English but your [Uneb question] demands that I add an exclamation mark which I have no idea about. In such cases, it is important that children are given an alternative to learning,” Lutalo said.

Also a deaf lecturer, Lutalo said education institutions need to equip prospective teachers with Uganda Sign Language throughout their training. Currently, at Kyambogo, sign language is only taught once as a course unit making teachers lack the linguistic competence to deliver the curriculum content in classrooms.

“FOCUS BEYOND EXAMS”
According to Hassan Waddimba, an Inclusion Advocate and Team Leader, of Grassroots Strategies Africa, the government ought to lay out a clear structural and systematic plan to support persons with disabilities to excel across their lifespan, not just in examinations.

“Uneb and the entire country should be rather celebrating the huge number of learners with disabilities completing the national exams. It is true, a lot still needs to be done to improve the performance of learners with disabilities, but more should even be done to balance the enrolment-to-completion ratio,” Waddimba said.

He added: “This is where we all get it wrong by not focusing on what’s next after they have excelled at a certain level. Is there sufficient support and inclusion in secondary schools and universities? Does our labour force planning consider persons with disabilities as potential employees across all sectors?”

He believes there’s a need to create systems for early identification of disabilities, inclusive health care and educational plans, and participatory transition from education to employment, among others.  He cited statistics from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics which showed that approximately 40,000 children with disabilities were enrolled in primary one each year between 2013 and 2015.

“If it takes someone seven years to complete primary seven, why is the number of learners reported sitting for the national examinations not even close to 40,000? We should be investigating and addressing the causes for drop-out for children with disabilities, or the causes for their slow progress from one class to another.”

Waddimba said direct investments need to be geared towards constructing accessible educational infrastructures and training inclusive educational instructors at every parish across the country. Children with disabilities have to be moved across districts to find suitable schools which greatly affects them.

Current statistics from the ministry’s SNE department indicate that 18 special and 221 inclusive primary schools support learners with special needs. Unlike at the primary level where a sizeable number of schools have been identified for SNE learners, there’s a lot to be desired at secondary level with only three special and 27 inclusive schools across the country.

nangonzi@observer.ug