New report shows a quarter of deaf children in Scotland left behind by Additional Support for Learning Act
The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) is calling for urgent action to improve education for deaf children in Scotland as a new report shows a quarter of deaf children are missing out on formal additional support in the classroom, despite a Government commitment to increase provision.
Research by the University of Edinburgh published today shows that the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 (the ASL Act) passed by the Scottish Government in 2004 is failing to meet the needs of deaf children, as 26% of deaf children currently have no form of support plan in place to help them achieve their potential at school. Factors such as a lack of awareness among teachers about the needs of deaf children, and that many parents have little understanding of their rights within the ASL Act, mean that deaf children are struggling to access the curriculum and are falling behind their hearing peers (1).
In addition, the report highlights that the Government has underestimated the numbers of children requiring and receiving support in Scottish schools due to inaccurate data on the numbers of deaf pupils. The 16 local authorities who responded to the survey, reported 923 deaf children, meaning the Government figure of 954 deaf children in Scotland for all 32 authorities cannot be accurate. NDCS is calling on the Scottish Government to provide accurate data on the numbers of deaf children in Scotland in order to ensure appropriate education services can be planned for and provided to effectively meet the needs of these children.
In a NDCS press release today, Jan Savage, NDCS Scotland Policy and Campaigns Manager, stated:
“Barriers to learning in the current education system are holding too many deaf children back from achieving their full potential. Without the right support at school, deaf children will continue to fall behind their hearing peers. Staff must be trained in deaf awareness, and parents need to be aware of their child’s right to support. We are calling on the Scottish Government to create an automatic right for deaf children to have their learning needs assessed, which would go some way to picking up the 26% of deaf children identified by this report as having no support plan in place and ensure that the Additional Support for Learning Act is working as it should for every deaf child.
In addition, it is of great concern that the 'Impact of Education (ASL) (Scotland) Act 2004 on Deaf Children' report highlights that Government statistics represent an inaccurate picture of the number of deaf pupils in Scotland. The Government must act now to ensure we have accurate data, to enable us to assess how to improve education services for deaf children and to ensure no deaf child is left behind.”
NDCS has launched the Pick a Number Campaign to ask the Scottish Government to routinely collect information on the number of deaf children in Scotland. Until there are official figures on numbers of deaf children, and where they go to school, we cannot fully monitor their educational attainment and progress. Neither is it possible to assess the how well current service provision meets their needs or identify areas in need of investment.
More information:
NDCS campaign page on the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004.
Contact: campaigns.scotland@ndcs.org.uk
Your recent comments
There are currently no comments on this page.