CBC Health Services Upgrades Skills of 20 Resource Teachers
To overcome the challenge of shortage of resource teachers to meet the growing number of learners with disabilities requiring individual support, the CBC Health Services has trained 20 resource teachers made up of 10 sign language interpreters and 10 in Braille from some schools in the Northwest and West Regions. The training dubbed, “Improving Access and Participation of Learners with hearing impairments in mainstream classrooms” started ran from July 17 to August 12, 2023 at the Baptist Center Nkwen.
The training held within the context of the Comprehensive Program for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and Inclusive Access to Basic Services of Health and Education in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. At the end of the training, CBC Health Services organized a closing ceremony, which was presided over by the Regional Delegate of Secondary Education and the Director of CBC Health Services.
While commissioning the trainees, the Regional Delegate of Secondary Education, Mr. Yuven Roland implored them to champion the course for inclusion in their respective schools by ensuring the inclusion of learners in all school activities, teaching, and learning. He indicated that without sign language and braille services, learners with visual and hearing impairments would not be able to attend school sustainably. Mr. Yuven charged them to play the role of assessing the educational needs of learners to assist all stakeholders in providing the necessary support to learners with impairments.
The Director of CBC Health Services, Prof. Tih Pius, on his part, underlined that children with sensory impairments who use Braille or sign language continue to experience challenges in mainstream settings because the government approved school curriculum for basic education do not consider their learning needs. “The training was quality time to improve not only on the number of resource teachers but also on the quality of braille and sign language services,” Prof Tih emphasized. He expressed gratitude to the network of experienced resource teachers under the supervision of the CBC Health Services’ services for Persons with Disabilities that ensured that the training was skillfully facilitated with the desired result achieved. With the skills acquire, the Director hopes to see an improvement in the training of learners with visual and hearing impairments in the community through resource rooms, increase in the number of learners with disabilities in schools, improvement in the academic performance of learners with disabilities and generally, the promotion of braille and sign language practice in the communities.
The trainers of Braille and Sign Language, Mr. Chambah Daniel and Mr. Che Manaseh respectively challenged the teachers to share the knowledge acquired with learners with impairments in their respective schools to improve their knowledge. Mr. Chambah disclosed that since 2016, the English-speaking countries all over the world moved from Standard English Braille to Unified English Braille (UEB). This shift created some limitations in the content that was thought to the learners. The training was thus to harmonize the content to have a unified content so that learners will not be confused with the difference and limitations that existed before in the content.
On his part, Mr. Che briefed those present on the Sign language content. At the end of the training, he said the trainees were able to produce a variety of didactic materials, which included visual libraries, songs, rhymes, and others, which will aid learning for the learners with hearing impairment.
The spokesperson of the trainees, Mr. Ngek James applauded CBC Health Services and CBM for funding the training program. They recommended that more teachers be included in subsequent training to meet the challenge of the growing number of learners with impairment in schools.
“As a mainstream teacher, I have gone through a lot of difficulties teaching children especially those with impairments because I did not know sign language and I had to struggle to see if the children could learn by writing; thanks to the training I have upgraded my skills in sign language and better understood the culture of learners with hearing impairment,” Dublia Patience, one of the trainees testified.
The training was carried out, thanks to funding from CBM.