GALOOME SHOPANE One of the task team members who worked on setting up a curriculum for South African Sign Language into the school system, Philemon Akach, says this is an achievement of huge proportions.
Akach says the first school for the deaf was built 132 years ago and they have waited very long for a moment such as this one.
He says the moment a language is included into the school curriculum, the way for success has been paved.
“Integrating deaf people into the mainstream does not mean that we have to lump them together in a classroom or school. But we have to expose them to the same learning processes that are in this country. And subject them to the same exams. And allow them to proceed in life just as we the majority do,” says Akach.
The department of basic education plans to offer South African Sign Language from grades R to 12 at home language level.
