Murad approves development of digital learning resources for deaf students

The Sindh government is committed to providing quality education to the nearly 300,000 deaf children in the province, a majority of whom have no access to it, said Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday.

Presiding over a meeting with a delegation of Deaf Reach comprising its CEO Richard Geary, Director Administration Daniel Marc Lanthier and Director Development Sarah Shaikh on Tuesday, the CM said that he plans to involve experts to create a system of digital learning of sign language and teachers’ capacity building activities.

Special Assistant to the CM for programmes related to differently-abled persons Qasim Naveed also attended the meeting. “Deaf Reach is a very good organisation and they are valuable partners of the provincial governments,” said CM Shah, adding that he would be happy to involve them in special education projects in Sindh.

Deaf Reach CEO Richard Geary said the objectives of the chief minister’s vision could be achieved by developing and making available Pakistan Sign Language (PSL) digital learning resources across Sindh and launching of training programme for teachers across 51 Special Needs Centres in Sindh. “We will have to train around 500 teachers,” he said.

In the meeting various issues and matters were discussed and the chief minister decided to create and develop Pakistan Sign Language learning resources at primary grade levels with focus on literacy and numeracy. The PSL digital resources would go on PSL portal with access given across Sindh.

Under the training programme, as decided by the CM, training for all teachers working in 51 Special Education Centres would be started under a teachers’ training programme. The PSL resources would also be distributed in all the centres and installed in classrooms.

The Deaf Reach team informed CM Shah that Sukkur campus and Nawabshah campus for Special Education had become over-crowded and needed expansion. Shah directed the secretary for special education to get Jacob Lines Complex in Karachi completed immediately so that it could be utilised. He said the under-construction STEVTA building at Sukkur should also be completed on a war footing basis and also issued directives for making arrangements of a building in Nawabshah.

Pointing out that education for differently-abled children was quite expensive in the private sector, CM Shah said many students were on the waiting list for the government-run Sukkur campus. “This shows that the parents are interested in enrolling their differently-abled children in government schools to make them useful citizens of the country,” he said.

It was worked out that each student at a government centre would cost Rs6,900 per child to the Sindh government.

This cost includes tuition fee Rs2,400, transportation Rs1,500, lunch Rs940, supplies for students Rs700, vocational training and material Rs360, medical care Rs300, parents training programme Rs300 and teachers training Rs400. Shah said that it was a noble cause and he would not hesitate to invest for the education of differently-abled children.