Deaf Children And Education

EDM number 495 in 2004-05, proposed by Malcolm Bruce on 12/01/2005.

That this House expresses concern that the Joint Council on Qualifications has removed the exemption from the 20 per cent. oral part of GCSE English examination for deaf students in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland who use sign language, after little consultation with specialist organisations and without announcement; notes that sign language cannot be used in the oral assessments within entry level qualifications and that the facility to use an oral communicator has been withdrawn in examinations for deaf students who use an oral/aural approach, meaning that children whose first language is sign language will immediately risk losing 20 per cent. of their marks; further notes that children who use the oral/aural approach will lose access to communication support which is in place to ensure pupils' individual needs are met and not disadvantaged by their hearing impairment; regrets that these changes have been introduced with little understanding of the impact they will have for deaf and hard of hearing young people; and believes that these changes will disadvantage deaf and hard of hearing young people taking their examinations from this May onwards.

This motion has been signed by a total of 102 MPs.