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Special need learners stand to gain significantly from sweeping changes to the country’s education system after the National Assembly passed the Kenyan Sign Language Bill, 2023.
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The legislation seeks to promote inclusivity and guarantee equal access to information, education and public services for persons who are deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind.
Kenya’s special need learners stand to gain significantly from sweeping changes to the country’s education system after the National Assembly passed the Kenyan Sign Language Bill, 2023, clearing a major legislative hurdle toward giving the language equal footing in schools and institutions of higher learning.
The legislation, co-sponsored by Nominated Member of Parliament Umulkheir Harun and Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo, seeks to promote inclusivity and guarantee equal access to information, education and public services for persons who are deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind.
At the heart of the Bill’s education provisions is a mandate directed at the Cabinet Secretary for Education. The CS is required to ensure that learners who are deaf or hard of hearing are taught in a manner in which they can comprehend and use the dominant language of instruction in the education system.
In addition, the CS is required to create a programme providing KSL classes to parents, siblings, grandparents and other individuals serving as guardians or primary caregivers to children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The Bill also seeks to have signing integrated into early childhood education generally and, in particular, KSL taught to all children in public and private early childhood education centres.
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Public institutions offering tertiary education are also required to do all that is reasonable and necessary to provide free interpretation services for those who are deaf, hard of hearing or deafblind.
The Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD) is a key player under the proposed law. The Bill proposes that KICD shall develop, review and approve appropriate programmes and curriculum support materials for learners who are deaf and with challenges in hearing.
KICD is also required to carry out a comprehensive assessment and review of existing programmes, curriculum support programmes and instructional materials for such learners.
In carrying out this review, the Institute shall invite and collaborate with authors to submit published works relevant to the curriculum for deaf learners for purposes of inclusion as curriculum support materials.
Technical and vocational training institutions, public colleges and centres, and public universities are required to include Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) as a course of study. Public institutions of higher learning are also required to conduct ongoing research regarding the utilisation and growth of sign language.
The Bill further addresses the medium of instruction for deaf learners. The proposed law aims to address the assimilationist approach used in many schools for the deaf, where teachers teach hearing impaired children how to speak in an attempt to make them appear more like hearing peers despite those children needing a visual language.
To this end, the Bill establishes clear language policies that recognise KSL as the medium of teaching for the deaf, an area that the National Special Needs Education Policy of 2010 failed to address fully.
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The education CS will also be required to ensure teachers of deaf students help learners acquire sufficient competence in the use of the English and Kiswahili languages, including ensuring KSL is taught in sign form and not written form.
The CS is additionally required to support the development of instructional materials for the education of deaf learners and set aside adequate funds for that purpose.
Teacher training institutions are also brought within the ambit of the Bill. The CS for education is required to ensure that institutions offering teacher training include, as part of their curriculum, courses on KSL and interpretation, so that teachers are well equipped to deliver the same to learners.
The constitution recognises three languages: English, Kiswahili and Kenya Sign Language. However, only English and Kiswahili have historically been taught in Kenyan schools, a gap this legislation now directly seeks to close.
Once assented to by the President, the Bill is expected to fundamentally reshape how Kenya’s estimated 2.7 million deaf and hard of hearing citizens experience education, from the earliest years of learning through to university.
By Benedict Aoya
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