My alarm bells was ringing after watching ‘Dispatches’ on Channel 4 last nite. The documentary is entitled “Why our children can’t read“.

The background reading leading to this documentary:

“According to Government statistics, a fifth of youngsters leaving primary school can’t read and write properly. That means they have not reached the benchmark reading age of an 11-year-old and are unlikely to be able to follow lessons when they go to secondary school.”

Dispatches investigate into the impact of poor reading skills acquired at primary schools’ level, which takes away the foundations that pupils require to access the National Curriculum when they enter secondary education. The consequence of this failure had lead to behavioural problems and truancy among pupils in the secondary schools and it emerged that lack of ability to read is the major underlying cause.

In the light of this national problem, the government have created a set of new guidelines, based on an “educational” review by Sir Graham Rose – the Rose Report. The new guideline is advocating the use synthetic phonics to teach pupils to reach.

A working definition of “Synthetic phonics”:

“Synthetic Phonics is a method of teaching reading which first teaches the letter sounds and then builds up to blending these sounds together to achieve full pronunciation of whole words. “

My concern is what impact does this new guideline will have on mainstreamed deaf children? I am struggling to see how this new teaching pedagogy – based entirely on the use of your auditory senses – that can cross the communications/language divide (via CSW/terp) and provide an effective learning route for reading, for deaf children.

Supporter of Synthetic phonics are almost evangelical about this method and insists it should be reinforced at all times. Does that means they will (deaf children) become even more excluded in mainstream setting, if their school decide to follow government guidelines with zeal?

Fighting talk from Susan Daniel (NDCS CEO), in her article about the current educational system for Deaf children.

The reason behind her article is shown below:

Government figures published today highlight that record numbers of children (60 percent) achieved five GCSEs graded A* to C this summer (1). Yet only a third (32.9%) of deaf children achieve this pass rate (2).

The 1st paragraph of Susan Daniel’s article goes like this:

“Education is the single most critical service that determines the life chances of all children yet these figures show that too many deaf children are being let down by a system not fit for purpose.

“It is a scandal that the gap between what deaf children and hearing children are achieving at school continues to widen. There is no reason for a deaf child to achieve any less than their hearing peers. Deafness is not a learning disability……..(continued)”

It would be useful to have data available to compare various models on how these Deaf children are taught. i.e. via mainstreaming, deaf schools and whether the schools are performing or under-performing.

Deaf Education need a good long hard look on it own, without any other disabled sectors thrown in the equation, and look at what is best for the D/deaf children. As Sue said, being Deaf is not a learning disability so there is no excuse and it is the goverment who is underperforming for us.

Related to this blog: G.O.D.