Situation of learners with Hearing Impairments

Notwithstanding the above-mentioned efforts, the number of children with hearing impairments in primary, secondary and tertiary education remains disproportionate, in part, due to the structural and systemic discrimination the deaf community faces on the Cameroon education landscape.

Educating students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing in Cameroon is challenging with many difficulties, such as, lack of remedial and educational programs, insufficient skilled teachers, unequipped schools, and lack of instructional and assessment methods informed by universal design. Furthermore, these groups of students study the same curricula designed for hearing students and they have the same educational cycle. Even though there are differences between hearing-impaired students and hearing students in how they receive and transmit information, in what academic content is accessible to them they continue to be exposed to the same curriculum as their non-deaf peers. Although deaf and hard of hearing pupils and students need appropriate instruction by teachers trained to work with deaf and hard of hearing students to meet their English learning needs, the absence of certified training programs for sign language interpreters has made it not an interesting profession, hence few sign language interpreters are available to support the inclusion of a growing population of deaf learners. This has made meaningful participation of deaf learners in mainstream schools difficult resulting in poor results and eventually, high school drop-out rates. This experience is twice as worse for deaf girls compared to their male counterparts given the broader social dynamics underpinning gender relations in Cameroon.