While it is hoped that the Act creates a cultural shift which impacts upon education, the Deaf Association Scotland has called for deaf education policy to be consistent across Scotland, to ensure fair and equal treatment for all deaf children across the country.
We believe the environment will change with the new BSL (Scotland) Act 2015 and the support of the Scottish Government enabling parents of Deaf children to have more opportunities to learn BSL intensively while their Deaf child is young, and continuously as their child grows up. This Act will create a cultural shift in attitudes about Deaf people which we hope will influence the education system too, so that BSL is accepted and valued in families across Scotland.However, the policy background in Scotland is still not favourable to the maintenance of BSL for Deaf children. The Standards in Scotland’s Schools etc. Act (2000) made it clear that the local school was presumed to be the best place for all children. While BDA Scotland supports the principles behind inclusive education, in the sense that it means justice for all children to achieve their full potential, we don’t support isolation of Deaf BSL users in their local schools. Physically being in the local school is often not conducive to linguistic inclusion at all. Where parents choose this option, we always press on schools to ensure that Deaf children should be allowed properly qualified educational BSL/English interpreters (minimum BSL Level 6) and highly skilled Deaf specialist staff supporting Deaf students. We believe more important are the following priorities in Scotland:
Development and implementation of a new Early Years Language Programme (language planning and learning development) to support every Deaf child and his/her family at home from the birth to the beginning of primary education;
Provision of regional centres of Deaf Education excellence (the school within a school model) – larger resource based nurseries and schools with large numbers of Deaf young people to allow BSL communities to flourish;
Maintenance of existing Deaf schools with more emphasis on an academic education through a bi-lingual BSL and English approach.
Development and implementation of a new Early Years Language Programme (language planning and learning development) to support every Deaf child and his/her family at home from the birth to the beginning of primary education;
Provision of regional centres of Deaf Education excellence (the school within a school model) – larger resource based nurseries and schools with large numbers of Deaf young people to allow BSL communities to flourish;
Maintenance of existing Deaf schools with more emphasis on an academic education through a bi-lingual BSL and English approach.
Deaf Association Scotland (2017) Empowering Teachers and Communities to Achieve Excellence and Equity in Education.