CHARITIES have issued a damning assessment of the way blind and deaf pupils are educated in Scottish schools.

 

Leading organisations said teaching staff lacked training, parents and pupils were not being supported and resources were patchy.

The attacks come in a series of submissions to the Scottish Parliament's education committee, which has launched an inquiry into the schooling of pupils with a sensory impairment.

The investigation follows recent figures which highlight a significant attainment gap between such pupils and the rest of the school population.

Deaf pupils have an average qualification tariff score of 289 compared to 439 for those that can hear while the average tariff score for pupils with a visual impairment is 249.

Ten per cent of deaf pupils who leave school have no qualifications compared to two per cent for all school-leavers.

A submission from the The National Deaf Children's Society criticised the lack of information about the number of pupils needing support.

It said: "There is currently no complete national data set on numbers of deaf children and young people in Scotland.

"Without a basic understanding of the numbers of deaf children and their needs it is difficult for national and local government to effectively plan service delivery."

The society said the Scottish Government had never published any guidance around early years support and information for children and their families.

It added: "There is often much disparity across local authorities in terms of how they deliver education support to deaf learners."

A separate submission from the Scottish Council on Deafness said British Sign Language (BSL) should be embedded into the curriculum.

The British Deaf Association Scotland backed the call, adding: "The policy background in Scotland is not favourable to the maintenance of sign language for deaf children.

"Physically being in the local school is often not linguistic inclusion at all. Where parents choose this option, we believe local authorities should support it with properly qualified interpreters."

The Royal National Institute for the Blind Scotland also expressed concern about a lack of reliable data.

Its submission states: "More rigorous collection of statistics on pupils with visual impairment is essential.

"To ensure blind and partially sighted children are provided with the best start there needs to be a significant shift in emphasis to delivering family support at the very earliest stage."

The institute said parents were looking for "significant" emotional and practical guidance, but it was "extremely variable" across the country.

"The result of this minimalist approach is that visually impaired children are developmentally delayed, their movement is hindered and their interaction and understanding of the world is restricted."

The Royal Blind charity highlighted the main priorities for improving attainment as training of teachers.

It states: "There are many qualified teachers of the visually impaired who have retired and this has left a huge deficit in those who are able to fully understand how to educate pupils with visual impairment.

"This is evidenced in some local authority areas where there is only one teacher who has a remit covering additional support needs and sensory support needs, without the necessary qualification."

The Scottish Council on Visual Impairment added: "There are insufficient, experienced qualified teachers of the visually impaired in Scotland to provide the necessary leadership, curriculum and practice design, modelling and direct teaching to meet the learning and attainment needs of visually impaired pupils, both in mainstream and specialist schools."