LookAtVietnam – “My daughter cried and cried when she had to stop going to school after the fifth grade,” says Nguyen Hong Trang, mother of a deaf 14-year-old girl in Ha Noi.

A training programme for hearing impaired students aims to train teachers who have skills to teach others with hearing impairments.

According to a report by the Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss, 80 per cent of Viet Nam’s 180,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing children have no access to education. Most facilities now can only teach these students up to the fifth grade.

Xa Dan is only the unofficial statistics revealed by the foundation’s survey, according to Nguyen Xuan Lap, deputy director of the Department of Social Welfare Protection under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

This is the only school in Ha Noi that has a junior high programme for hearing impaired children.

According to Do Minh Tuan, a teacher at the school, 6th to 9th grade classes for hearing impaired students opened in 2002. Ten students have graduated from these classes since 2007.

“Our school’s ability to provide grants to students is limited. We try to encourage hearing impaired students to continue with their studies after the fifth grade, but many have to stop studying and go to work because their families are too poor,” says Tuan.

Tran Manh Nam, 18 years old, who has deaf parents, says: “I had to leave school after the fifth grade. I am currently unemployed and still living with my parents. My dad works very hard as a carpenter, but he is treated very badly and earns only VND40,000 (US$2.2) per day. His job is very unstable.”

Making the grade

The first college and university training programme specifically for hearing impaired students, known as “Opening University Education to the Hearing Impaired in Viet Nam through Sign Language Analysis, Teaching and Interpretation”, was set up at the Dong Nai Teacher’s Training College in 2000.

This programme has been funded entirely by the Japanese Nippon Foundation for 12 years.

The aim of the programme is to form a group of about 45 deaf teachers who have the skills to teach other hearing-impaired persons.

There are two key components of this programme: first, a general junior high and high school education taught via sign language and written Vietnamese; and second, a university-certificate programme in sign language analysis and teaching. Each subject has special teachers and lessons are conducted entirely in sign language.

“Twenty-five students have finished high school since last year. Twelve of them have continued on to the Intermediate Teacher Training Course,” says Nguyen Thi Hoa, Director’s Assistant of the Project.

“At first, all of my students had dreams of becoming a sign language teacher. However, not all of them can pursue this dream because this job requires a great deal of patience,” she adds.

“I am very proud of my students. Tran Quang Pham Thai is a great example. Before coming to my school, he was very stubborn and did not study well. But now, he is very confident in teaching other hearing-impaired children,” says Hoa.

Nguyen Hoang Lam is one of 12 students who come from Ha Noi. After overcoming homesickness and all other difficulties, he now really enjoys studying and living at the Dong Nai Teacher’s Training College.

“I have always had a dream of opening a school and university for other hearing-impaired people,” Lam says.

“A higher education training programme has yet to be available in Ha Noi. Some of my students had to leave home to study in the province,” Tuan says.

Due to the success of the project, the Ministry of Education and Training has planned to expand this project to other cities.

“We have begun a similar project in Ha Noi in co-operation with the ministry,” says Yasunobu Ishii, chief manager of the Nippon Foundation International Programme Department.

“More than 60 students in the capital and its surrounding areas have applied to participate in this project so far. To qualify, students will have to take maths and literature exams in Vietnamese. The best students will have an interview conducted in sign language,” Hoa says.

There is a famous parable which says: “Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish, he will eat for a life time. Teach him to teach others to fish and we can feed the world.”

“I hope that this project will spread throughout many areas of the country. If so, teaching hearing-impaired students would be much easier because the teachers would also be deaf and have the skills and patience to do the job,” Hoa says.

“When higher education institutes are set up in Ha Noi, my daughter will be able to participate and follow her dreams,” says Trang.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News