Free Signing and Note-taking Services for Hearing-impaired Students

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng asked the Minister for Education if the Ministry could provide free signing and note-taking services for hearing-impaired students in Government-funded institutions of learning such as the ITE, polytechnics and universities.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education (Mr Hawazi Daipi) (for the Minister for Education): Sir, special needs students, such as those who are hearing-impaired, form a small proportion of the students in our education system. Nonetheless, our ITEs, polytechnics and universities have been increasing their support for students with special needs.

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Academic staff do their part to provide extra support or adjust their teaching methods appropriately to meet the students' needs. In addition, fellow students have also volunteered to provide peer assistance. Let me cite two examples of what Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Singapore Management University have done to assist hearing-impaired students.

For Ngee Ann Polytechnic, a student buddy is identified to provide peer support. Academic staff provide additional teaching support such as preparing extra notes and conducting extra remedial lessons for these students. For examinations and tests, written instructions are made available to hearing-impaired students.

For Singapore Management University (SMU), hearing-impaired students are given front-row seats in the seminar rooms. Note-takers – who are current students - are assigned to help take notes for their hearing-impaired schoolmates. To facilitate lip-reading, instructors position themselves so that these students can read their lips. Lastly, instructors provide written instructions for these students in class as well as during the examinations.

Our institutions share good practices among themselves on how to provide support to students with special needs. They are committed to providing a good learning environment and educational support to all their students.

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng: Sir, I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the answer. The inputs from students with hearing impairment or deafness in these institutions confirm that current efforts to support them are based on individual kindness, not systemic. The examples that the Senior Parliamentary Secretary has quoted come from just some of the institutions who are willing to be kind. What I am asking for is something systemic, and to ask the Ministry to provide a very clear instruction to the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to support students with hearing impairment and deafness, just like what the Minister did for character education. If MOE says it would do it, then the whole machinery gets turned on –

Mr Speaker: Ms Phua, please ask the question.

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng: I would like to ask the Minister to provide a clear instruction to the IHLs to support our students with this disability and also to provide the resources for free signing and note-taking services, which they need very much. We cannot count on volunteers because the volunteers themselves, especially the student volunteers, have to study, and they do have other demands on their time.

Mr Hawazi Daipi: Sir, the services offered by our institutions are not just based on human kindness. Yes, that is important and I think we should develop that. The students would also know that they can develop their own support system among their friends in school. The institutions actually have very structured ways to help students with disabilities, including hearing impairment.

First, they identify the students with disabilities. For example, NUS, NTU and SMU undertake pre-enrolment medical examinations to assess the disability of the students. They also require the students to declare if they have any disability, so that they can assign staff members to look out for these students. They train their staff members to be able to help such students with disabilities. That teaching and learning support is the second assistance that is given. Part of the learning support is to get students who can help their classmates in taking notes and in sharing information about the lessons taught in the class. I think these are powerful ways to help students with disabilities manage their instructions in class. Apart from that, our institutions also help provide clear written instructions to those with disabilities including hearing impairment.

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I would say that generally, there is a comprehensive way in which our IHLs are helping the students with disabilities. Yes, we would want to rely on the good will of fellow students to help because they can provide a powerful support system to those who need help.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar: Sir, I thank the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for his answer. From what I understand, the Allied Educators, especially those who are doing learning and behaviour support, are trained to deal with students with dyslexia, autism or ADHD, but not quite in helping hearing-impaired students. Will the Ministry consider training Allied Educators (AEDs) in learning and behavioural support, in learning the sign language to help hearing-impaired students in the mainstream schools?

Mr Hawazi Daipi: Sir, I thank the Member for the suggestion. I do not know exactly what are the skills needed for particular students in the different schools but we know that our AEDs are given the opportunities to go for specific training to help students with learning difficulties and who may need particular assistance from the school. We are deploying more AEDs in schools and most of them come with counselling and specific skills, but when it is needed for them to have further skills to help particular students in the school, we will be able to do that.

Mr Speaker: Ms Phua, last question. Please keep it short.

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng: Thank you, Sir. Just so we do not run the risk of providing lip service, I would request MOE to conduct a survey probably a focus group of students with hearing impairment or deafness who are studying in these IHLs, and to find out more in detail which of the IHLs are providing structured and systemic support beyond just using student volunteers. I would ask MOE to consider that.

Mr Hawazi Daipi: I do not think we should go away thinking that we are not providing the needed service to students with disabilities. I have illustrated how our institutions are helping students with disabilities. I started my answer by saying that the number of students with disabilities is very small. Less than 1% of those in our IHLs. Nevertheless, each of the institution takes great care in ensuring that the students with disabilities are, firstly, identified properly; secondly, they get the right assistance, not just someone who is able to provide sign language services but, more importantly, for someone to sit with the students with hearing impairment and other disabilities so that they can get the direct assistance needed.

This is more than just providing a service where students can understand the lessons or can decipher what is being taught, but to understand what has been delivered in the class, with the follow-up assistance by fellow students who may be able to help. I would like the Member to consider thinking that this is a very powerful way of assisting students with disabilities, including hearing impairment. Nevertheless, if it is needed that we should provide further assistance, we would be able to consider that.

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