The future of scores of learners at the North West School for the Deaf hangs in the balance as there are still no teachers and no study material while they are expected to sit for their matric supplementary examinations soon.
While the education department registered all the 28 affected Grade 12 learners for supplementary examinations, it has not provided them with learning material or sign language teachers.
All this is happening following the government’s constitutional amendment bill that will pave the way for sign language to be recognised as the twelfth official language.
An affected parent at the School for the Deaf, Clara Moeti said her 26-year-old daughter would have finished school on record time had she had learning material and teachers.
“Our children do not have books, they write on a shared piece of paper. The school management tells us that we will have to look for interpreters for our children because they still do not have qualified sign language teachers, this is breaking my heart,” she said.
The North West Arts and Culture MEC Kenetswe Mosenogi acknowledged the shortage of teachers and books but said her department doesn’t have powers to change the situation but that only the department of education can right the situation.
“It is one area that we’ve requested discussions with the department of education through our provincial language board, because we have identified it as a serious challenge.
“Sometimes we don’t have that capacity because we are not teachers, we can have interpreters but they might not be teachers,” she said.
