Academic Performance Among Students Of Hearing Impairment: A Case Study Of Wakiso Secondary School For The Deaf

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that determine the

academic performance of students with hearing impairment.

Student class reports were studied for term one and term two of 2008.

And multiple observation sessions were carried out during the same

period.

The research questions were:

1. What is the nature of H.I. suffered by H.L Students?

2. What difficulties do students of H.I. face with academic learning?

3. What are the teacher’s qualifications and training?

The study was an exploratory qualitative case study design and the

instruments used for data collection were documents of any evidence of

students past results, and an observation guide. The data was analyzed

both qualitatively and quantatively using frequency counts, percentages

and tables.

The results of the study were as follows.

a) The nature of hearing impairment determines the academic

performance of H.I.

b) Students of HJ. have difficulties in their academic learning as a

result of H.I.

c) The teachers’ qualifications and training determine the

academic performance of students with HI

Recommendations

1. Educational institutions of students with HI should employee both

visually based mode of communication and encourage the HOH children

to use hearing aids so that the auditory oral mode can be used in the

class rooms. It is through audition and not vision that English language

development can be developed most effectively and thus can serve as the

basis for English literacy. And it is reading capability that is the key to

educational accomplishments and vocational success in our modern age.

The implication of this point of view is that in educating HOH children, it

is first necessary to ensure the optimum use of their residual hearing.

Only after this is accomplished should other remediation services be

used. In no case, should any of these other services be offered as

substitutes for an optimal auditory management programme

2.Ministry of Education and Sports should support the teachers in

acquiring skills in the monitoring of hearing aids and auditory training

systems so that HOH children can be helped to develop speech and

language skills primarily through the auditory mode and employs a

primarily auditory system of communication. Educationally, when HOH

children are treated as deaf children, the visual channel receives the

primary educational emphasis rather than the auditory channel thus the

emphasis in the use of sign language in many educational institutions

with students of HI.

3. The Ministry of Education and Sports should work hand in hand with

the Ministry of Health to formulate deliberate programs to create

awareness on the causes of hearing impairment and how to prevent them

just like malaria programmes are being disseminated with the

communities

4.Preligually Deaf students in particular have some difficulties in English

and may find difficulty to understand the meaning of questions in a

typical examination paper particularly when they communicate in sign

language which a non-grammatical language. Questions should therefore

be phrased clearly and the students understanding of them should be

checked at the outset. Invigilators must also ensure that spoken

instructions are available in written or in signed form.. For some of them

sign language may be their first language and where oral or written

communication is difficult the problem must be regarded as one of

understanding. Assignments should be outlined in clear jargon free,

short sentences.

5. Ministry of Education and Sports to fund all the activities in HI

schools to enable the schools procure the necessary instructional

materials for effective learning and teaching of HI students.

Areas of Further Research.

More research regarding factors that determine students of H.I. academic

performance should be carried among others on the following:

a) Whether these findings pertain to other H.I. educational

institutions.

b) Students’ performance and availability of special educational

services in the HI educational institutions.

c) Students socio-economic status, syllabus coverage, the setting of examinations and their marking,