Curriculum for Children with Hearing Impairment: A Bridge in Accessing Secondary Education

A fundamental aim of this study was to investigate the content of the curriculum used by children with hearing impairment in Zimbabwe at special institutions since most of these children fail to proceed to secondary education after grade seven despite the equal opportunity philosophy of inclusion.  The descriptive research design of the quantitative methodology was used. The sample was 40 teachers from a special school including the head of that special school and the head of a neighbouring secondary school. Random sampling was employed and the instruments used were questionnaires, interviews and checklist of equipment used to access the curriculum.

The intention of the study was to provide accurate information about the possibility of the curriculum in special schools to bridge children with hearing impairment to secondary education in Zimbabwe. The study found out that teachers have difficulties in interpreting the curriculum using sign language. Also results revealed that teachers failed to complete the curriculum since they dwelt a lot on practical subjects at the detriment of academic subjects. The results have shown that teachers used different teaching approaches that confused children from one grade to another. Also sign language development was not given enough time since most teachers were not qualified and skilled in sign language. The study recommended in-service training of teachers in order to solve issues of irrelevant approaches, poor interpretation of the curriculum and lack of knowhow about the teaching academic subjects. In addition, the study recommends inclusion of sign language in the curriculum to facilitate access to other curriculum contents.