Maka Kordzadze, Nino Bokeria, Nino Inauri, Natia Amiridze

1. Recommendations on Development and Implementation of Accreditation Standard 1 – Mission for Schools for Children with Hearing Difficulties Maka Kordzadze, Nino Bokeria, Nino Inauri, Natia Amiridze National Education Accreditation Center (NEAC) Nino Amiridze Utrecht University

2. TARGET SCHOOLS • Tbilisi Public School # 203 • Kutaisi Public School #45 for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HoH) Children

3. RECOMMENDATIONS’ OBJECTIVE Support the proposed schools in the process of preparation for Accreditation of General Educational Institutions (GEI).

4. ACCREDITATION OFGENERAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS • Mandatory for all GEI (Law of Georgia on General Education. Article 32) • Accreditation Status of GEI Before the start of the 1st Accreditation Process: Public Schools – Accredited before start of Academic year 2011-2012 Private Schools – Accredited before start of Academic year 2010-2011 • NEAC intends to start Accreditation Process in advance so that all GEIs acquire Accredited status before the above mentioned period.

5. OBJECTIVES OF ACCREDITATION • Inclusion of General Education system of Georgia in the global quality assessment system • Facilitation of necessary changes in the system of general education • Quality improvement in General Education • Introduction of new methods and approaches in the process of teaching and learning • Introduction of regular self-evaluation in schools as a tool for further improvement of their performance in a qualitative sense • Monitoring correspondence of the study process with National Objectives of General Education, National Curriculum as well as standards set out by NEAC.

6. ACCREDITATION STANDARDS Four Accreditation Standards are to be met by all schools during the proposed accreditation process. The NEAC Standards are as follows: • Mission • Culture • Study Program • Management of Resources

7. SELF-EVALUATION At the beginning of the accreditation process General Educational Institutions • carry out self-evaluation • identify their strengths and needs on a basis of thorough study as well as assessment of their overall performance • prepare a Self-Evaluation Report

8. SELF-EVALUATION School’s Self-Evaluation is: • an important part of the accreditation application package • a basis for expert groups and accreditation council’s eventual recommendation on granting accreditation to schools.

9. MISSION-BASED ACCREDITATION The Proposed Accreditation is regarded to be the Mission-based Accreditation. Therefore it is of utmost importance to carefully plan and implement Standard I – Mission. Mission and other three standards of Accreditation of General Education Institutions are interrelated.

10. SPECIFICITY OF TARGET SCHOOLS’S MISSION Taking into account the specificity of target schools the Mission has to be developed in accordance with • the Law of Georgia on General Education • National Objectives of General Education • scientific research • best achievements in deaf education worldwide in order to guarantee favorable conditions for study, communication and children’s further development.

11. SPECIFICITY OF TARGET SCHOOLS’S MISSION After the careful study of • research carried out during the last decades • experience of foreign countries in the field of special education • consultations with a number of researchers and educators we decided to formulate a set of recommendations for Target Schools. Though before proceeding to recommendationsit is important to discuss some issues:

12. 1. TRADITIONS &PRACTICES OF DEAF EDUCATION IN GEORGIA • Traditions and practices result from the Soviet heritage in special education – influence of ideas by Soviet Educators and Moscow Institute of Defectology. • Russian (Soviet) influence on Approaches, methodology and programs of target schools is still strong: currently a manual (charter) issued in 1952-1956 isstill in use. • Use of sign language in the classroom was prohibited during the Soviet period. • Sign languages were thought either to be pantomime or to be simple gestural codes which prevented Deaf people from cognitive development. However, recent linguistic work has shown these beliefs to be incorrect: natural sign languages show all the structural properties of other human languages.

13. 2. Soviet Approach – “Purely Oral Method” “Purely oral method” or Oralism • advocates the use of oral education methods with all students with hearing impairment • emphasizes the development of skills in the areas of speech, speech reading and hearing It was believed that integration of Deaf would only be possible by developing their oral skills • Soviet Educational literature of 1920s – 1980s in deaf education is focused on claiming all-importance of the “purely oral method” for the development of deaf children while severely criticizing the use of “visual-manual language” (i.e. sign language in Soviet terminology). • “Purely oral method” is still advocated by the majority of educators in Georgia.

14. 3. “Purely Oral Method” – Evaluation and Consequences • Markku Jokinen, a President of the World Federation of the Deaf, calls the oralist method as ”linguistic oppression”. As “it prevents profound literacy and gaining the knowledge and skills that would correspond to their innate capacities and would be needed for socio-economic mobility and democratic participation”. • Francois Grosjean, a Swiss Linguist: “Many Deaf children have great difficulties producing and perceiving an oral language in its spoken modality. Having to wait several years to reach a satisfactory level that might never be attained, and denying the Deaf child access to a sign language, is basically taking the risk that the child will fall behind in his/her development, be it linguistic, cognitive, social, or personal”.

15. 4. What Are Sign Languages?

16. 4. What Are Sign Languages? SIGN LANGUAGES are • used by deaf people interacting with one another

17. 4. What Are Sign Languages? SIGN LANGUAGES are • used by deaf people interacting with one another • human languages whose forms consist of sequences of movements and configurations of the hands and arms, face, and upper torso. • perceived through the visual mode. • visual-gestural languages, while spoken languages are auditory-vocal languages.

18. 5. Children Groups within the Deaf Community • [hearing] children of Deaf adults (CODA) • deaf Children of Deaf parents • deaf children of hearing parents.

19. 6. Children Groups – Overview [hearing] children of Deaf adults - (CODA) • receive 'poorly structured input', in a spoken language • are exposed primarily to a sign language. • have access to normally spoken language through other sources like hearing relatives, neighbors, peers, etc. • are thus often raised in a bilingual situation. deaf Children of Deaf parents • have full access to the sign language. • their sign language acquisition process and the developmental process is similar to that of hearing children of hearing parents.[for ASL Newport and Meier 1985] deaf children of hearing parents – The most challenged group! • approximately 90% of all deaf children. • Their socialization processes start at a later age, resulting in isolation. • In Georgia they are not exposed to sign language until 5th grade at school (10-12 years of age), neither are they able to perceive spokenlanguage, therefore the most important phases of their languagedevelopment are delayed or absent altogether. Also, communication withparents and family, developing cognitive abilities in infancy,acquiring world knowledge, communication fully with the surroundingworld are missed. Majority of hearing parents insist on educating their children in mainstream schools. They still think that sign language is not a real language. Parents largely rely on Cochlear implants, but in many cases it is a huge problem for implanted children around the world - they might grow up without any proper language skills and they might face identity problem in the future.

20. 7. Inclusive Education • Even though the issue of integration of deaf children in the society is regarded to be the most essential one, and regardless the humane objectives of inclusive education, we regard it impossible to incorporate deaf learners in the process of inclusive education, due to the lack of adequately trained human resources. • The two schools for deaf children in Georgia are the only providers of general education for deaf children. • As for the quality of education at these schools and opportunities for further personal growth, linguistic, cognitive and communication development of deaf children, needs improvement and reforms.

21. 8. Bilingual Education A sign language–oral language bilingualism is the only way that Deaf children will meet their many needs: • communicate early on with their parents • develop their cognitive abilities • acquire knowledge of the world • communicate fully with the surrounding world • acculturate into the world of the hearing and of the Deaf. In sum, it is crucial that those who take care of Deaf children (parents, educators, language pathologists, doctors) allow them to acquire two languages, the sign language of the Deaf community (as a first language when the hearing loss is severe) and the oral language of the hearing majority.

22. 9. Bilingual Education – Successful Foreign Experience and Research • Moscow Bilingual Deaf School (1992); • Swedish Bilingual Approach in Deaf Education (since 1980s); • Turkish Bilingual Education (projects supported by the World Bank); Teacher training courses; Research and development (Ulrike Zeshan); • Development Strategy of Estonian Language (2004) guarantees sign language users and other people with special needs favorable conditions for study, communication and work. • 23rd Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics, Uppsala, Sweden.Workshop "Language Change in Bilingual Communities”. Central issue: Bilingualism and sociolinguistic situation of Deaf communities of the former Soviet countries. http://www.let.uu.nl/~Nino.Amiridze/personal/organization/PSB08.html

23. For the purpose of properly defining and meeting the Accreditation Standard I – Mission, we would like to set out the following recommendations for the two Georgian public schools for Deaf and HoH children:

24. Recommendations • The Mission and the role of the schools in the sphere of General Education of Deaf Children should be perceived; • Strengths and needs of the schools should be studied in detail; • The successful practice of bilingual education of the deaf children worldwide should be analyzed and taken into consideration; • The student-oriented approach based on bilingual approach should be introduced for the purpose of further success in the learning process and for the sake of personal growth of children; • Ways towards the development of human resources available should be defined; • Schools’ development strategy should be elaborated, based on the scientific research and global experience in the field, in order to provide deaf children with the supportive environment for their development and integration in the society. • Each deaf and HoH child has to be treated as an individual and the school ethos and Deaf Studies curriculum has to supports the children to develop a positive sense of their Deaf identity, high levels of self-esteem and confidence. • Most importantly, monolingual approach and the focus on exclusively oral methods should not be imperative.

25. THANK YOU

26. www.nea.ge