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During our ICS-VSO programme we have to do 3 Action Citizen Day in any areas what we think is the most priority to have a brief presentation about it. They asked the UK and Filipino volunteers who wants to be part of the committee and organise it- I'm one of three who volunteered to do it. I was given a week and half to create this day, because of my work placement, i have decided to talk about the deaf people in education as i felt that they aren't getting all their needs or even have their own rights.
There is two sub committee who helped me with this project, Pippa (U.K.), and my countepart JennyLyn (Filipino). Pippa done a research on the education core which had bought back some strong evidences to back up my research and experiences on deaf issues. JennyLyn spoken about her experience at a mainstream school during her time in the education. Here is a sub of what we've talked about in our presentation :-
+ DEAF ISSUES
- English level- how to improve them? We mentioned that they would need more english lesson, spelling test, writing, and reading coming from a deaf or qualified filipino sign language teacher because their lack of FSL is affecting them. I also mentioned that adding drama lesson to the subject would benefit them because it can help them to be creative and use their imaginations.
- Teachers' Filipino Sign Language Skill
- Teachers' Deaf Awareness
- Lack of Communication
- Equality in Education- how can we proves them that deaf people can learn same level as general education what hearing people get?
- Deaf Access- we mentioned that they would need plenty of access to the education such as subtitle, qualified teacher for the deaf, communicators, and proper equipped classroom for the deaf.
Pippa also quoted "Without COMMUNICATION, there is no EDUCATION, without EDUCATION, there is no COMMUNICATION." i quite like this quote because it is true!
+ WHAT IS INCLUSION?
- Pippa decided to ask the filipino volunteers to see if they knows what is the meaning of "inclusion" to test their knowledge. The results was surprisingly shocking, none of them knew what it means, and it seems like nobody knows what it is suppose to mean. We asked them if they thinks their education is fair, most of them said no, then we explained what inclusion meant. We also showed them the example of inclusion- the room suddenly up flared with responds and they was expressing their feeling, experiences, and argument which was amazing. We asked them if they would stand up to themselves and show the government their argument in bid to change their education core for the deaf people- they asked how? Rack (the coordinator for the deaf VSO) explained that they could write a letter, set a petition, and collect information from each deaf individuals then send it off. Pippa also noticed that there is not enough research evidence on deaf people in a mainstream school- she found one in Manila where they accept only 23 in public schools and 3 in private schools. We asked filipino volunteers (they all come from different islands in the Philippines) where they went and most of them answered mainstream- this proves there is not enough research on deaf people in education! The last update of the education core is 2009 which is not good enough and this should be changed.
+ UK (D.E.D) AND FILIPINOS (D.E.P.E.D)
- We divided the group into two (UK and Filipino) to write down on their paper about their education in their country so then we can exchange them in the end to compare their education. UK mentioned that they have qualified teacher for the deaf, deaf access, equality, good deaf awareness,and inclusion. Filipino somewhat not surprised, they've put quite alot of negative things on their paper, mainly about the deaf issues and the inequality of their education. I quite like one word they've put on their paper, 'empower', i asked them what makes them write it and they responded, 'we want to change it for the better'.
+ DEAF IDENTIFY
- we ran out of time to even do this, Pippa wanted to ask them what is their identify and what makes them 'them'. She didn't wanted them to respond who they are, for example, "I'm Leanne", she wanted them to respond what makes them who they are such as "I'm a deaf person who can do anything" style. If it was me i would say my deaf identify have made me who i am today because i'm not ashamed of being deaf and i'm proud to show it to the world. In my theory, i don't think filipinos would have say it because they are often ashamed of who they are and often hides themselves from it. They don't really communicate in the public nor on the Jeepney useless they're with big group of us.
+ HAVE YOU LEARNT SOMETHING?
- at the end of presentation we asked the group if they've learnt something, most of filipino noted them down and said yes. I hope mines, Pippa, and JennyLyn 's Action Citizen Day have taught them something to change this and spread the words when we get back to home at the end of our voluntary work.
I hope we have influenced them and shown them our good role model being a deaf person who knows our rights.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
- comments
nana philis you show them you are a real insperation for them xxxx
Kev stead This is interesting stuff. It only highlights the fact that the uk is so more advanced in terms of disability rights etc. keep up the good work and inspire them to be all that they can be.