North Wales Assembly Member and Shadow Minister for Communities, Mark Isherwood AM, has today called on the Welsh Government to ensure better support for pupils using British Sign Language in schools.
Questioning the Education Minister in the Assembly Chamber this afternoon, Mr Isherwood, who is himself a hearing-aid wearer, referred to the Deffo! Wales Deaf Youth Forum petition, which calls for improved access to education in BSL for children and young people, and asked the Minister to respond the Deffo’s concerns regarding the Welsh Government’s lack of action to set up an Advisory Group to begin the actions agreed at the February Assembly Debate on their petition.
Mr Isherwood said:
“On 6 February we debated the Deffo! Wales Deaf Youth Forum petition asking for deaf young people to have better access to education, qualified staff to work with and help to develop the skills of deaf young people using British Sign Language.
“Deffo! is concerned that, in your subsequent response to a letter you were forwarded from them, you stated that none of the £289,000 extra money being put into the Additional Learning Needs budget is to go to support for Teaching Assistants - or, as they prefer them to be called, Communication Support Workers – and they say that's ‘truly shocking’.
“How do you respond to their concern that, to date, they've had no further correspondence from your or anyone in Welsh Government regarding the plan to set up an advisory group to begin the actions that were agreed at the debate?”
Responding, the Minister said she would be “happy to update the campaigners”, and would “put a copy of that letter in the library and also copy the Member concerned”.
Mr Isherwood added: “British Sign Language is the UK’s 4th indigenous language, recognised in its own right in 2003 – and campaigners are calling for deaf BSL users to be seen as a language minority group.
“Currently there are deaf children in Wales in mainstream education with limited access to other deaf peers and communication support. As a result, they leave School at 16 with an average median reading age of nine. They often also have poor speech and lip-reading skills - which hasn’t changed since the 1970’s with failures in increased mainstream education only exacerbating this. We need action and we need it now!”
