Question NW3401 to the Minister of Basic Education
21 November 2017 - NW3401
Ollis, Mr IM to ask the Minister of Basic Education
(1)What number of evaluators of the curriculum materials are qualified in SA Sign Language (SASL) in each province; (2) what number of (a) hearing teachers and (b) deaf teaching assistants in each province have been trained in the past academic year to teach the content of any subject provided; (3) does each province have an oversight committee or subject specialists who are SASL linguists to assist teachers who have difficulties in performing their tasks?
Reply:
(1) The evaluation of curriculum materials is the competence of the National Department of Basic Education (DBE). For this purpose, the DBE has set up a Task Team that has two evaluators from the Western Cape and KwaZulu- Natal provinces who are qualified in South African Sign Language (SASL).
(2) (a) and (b) Teachers and Deaf Teaching Assistants (DTAs) trained in SASL CAPS:
Province |
(a) Number of teachers |
(b) Number of Deaf Teaching Assistants |
Total |
||
SP |
FET |
SP |
FET |
||
EC |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
16 |
FS |
3 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
GT |
11 |
7 |
11 |
6 |
35 |
KZN |
13 |
5 |
8 |
3 |
29 |
LP |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
MP |
3 |
- |
3 |
- |
6 |
NC |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
NW |
6 |
- |
7 |
- |
13 |
WC |
8 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
14 |
Total: |
52 |
24 |
39 |
18 |
133 |
(3) Only KwaZulu Natal and Western Cape have subject specialists who are SASL Linguists. The other seven (7) Provincial Education Departments are dependent on Language Subject Advisors who have been orientated by the DBE to carry out this role, as an interim measure.