The education programme for the typical population also provides the basis of education for pupils with hearing impairments in special schools, although there are some areas that are modified. It sets out specific requirements for upbringing and education resulting from loss of hearing.
The education of children and pupils with hearing impairments is regulated by separate educational programmes for levels ISCED 0, 1,2 and 3 which include all the provisions laid down in the state education programmes for typ-ical pupils.
Pupils are enrolled in special schools for pupils with hearing impairments after diagnostic investigations intended to determine the pupil’s special educational
Education for pupils with hearing impairments in the Slovak Republic
-development support and education of children and youth with hearing impairment – comparative analysis on the example of five European countries aborniak-Sobczak, Katarzyna Ita Bieńkowska, Edyta Tomińska • Wydawnictwo APS • Warsaw 2017
needs. Education is provided using special teaching aids and assistive devices as well as textbooks and specially adapted teaching texts. At present all schools for pupils with hearing impairments are residential and for the purposes of edu-cation children are grouped into classes as follows:
– classes of pupils with total hearing loss – classes of pupils with partial hearing loss – classes of pupils with cochlear implants
Section 95(1)(b) of Act No 245/2008 states that attendance at a basic school for pupils with hearing impairments can be extended by up to two years and the school has ten years – a preparatory year and years one to nine, which means that a basic school for pupils with hearing impairments can last a year longer than basic school for the typical population.
Decree No 322/2008 of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic of 06 August 2008 on special schools defines the maximum numbers of pupils.
The conditions for pupils with hearing impairments are stipulated as follows:
– from the preparatory year to year five, eight pupils, at most six pupils with total hearing loss
– from year six to year nine, ten pupils, at most eight pupils with total hear-ing loss
The content of education for pupils with hearing impairments is divided into nine areas based on the definition of the content of education and the key com-petences that pupils are expected to acquire. Not all areas are represented in primary and lower secondary education and the compulsory subjects are also divided between them. Education is divided into the following areas:
1. Language and communication, 2. Nature and society,
3. People and nature, 4. People and society, 5. People and values,
6. Mathematics and work with information, 7. People and the world of work,
8. Art and culture, 9. Health and movement.
The teaching subjects are distributed across these areas of education and the number of hours dedicated to compulsory subjects range from 17 hours (in
Darina Tarcsiová
-development support and education of children and youth with hearing impairment – comparative analysis on the example of five European countries aborniak-Sobczak, Katarzyna Ita Bieńkowska, Edyta Tomińska • Wydawnictwo APS • Warsaw 2017
the preparatory year) to 24 hours (in year nine), besides which the framework teaching plan includes 5 to 7 hours for optional subjects in which other subjects may be taught. Overall, schools for pupils with hearing impairments teach 22 to 30 hours per week depending on which year pupils are in.
The areas of education in a special school for pupils with hearing impair-ments differ from the areas of education in a typical school in the following ways:
– the area of language and communication includes the subject communi-cation skills, which is taught throughout the period of school attendance (1 hour per week),
– a foreign language is first taught in year four, whereas in a typical school a foreign language is taught from year three.
– unlike in typical schools, a second foreign language is not compulsory but can be taught as an optional subject or as part of upbringing outside tuition,
– music is not a compulsory subject and it is possible to teach movement and drama, drama, rhythmical movement or listening,
– A special subject, individual speech therapy intervention, is provided during the hours for optional subjects for a period of two to five hours per week and the lessons are organised so that pupils can have individual sessions,
– other special subjects which are taught during optional lessons include:
sign language, drama, a second foreign language and subjects that broaden or strengthen pupils’ skills (e.g. lessons focussing on reading with comprehension),
– The process of upbringing and education includes therapies such as music therapy, drama therapy, art therapy as the school’s circumstances and character permit (State education programme for children and pupils with hearing impairments ISCED0, 1, 2, 3).
Depending on the type and degree of hearing impairment, primary and lower secondary education for pupils with hearing impairments may be provided using the following forms of communication:
1. Spoken language, i.e. Slovak, 2. Written language, 3. Sign language, 4. Signed Slovak, 5. Finger alphabet, 6. Lip reading, 7. Auxiliary articulatory indications.
Education for pupils with hearing impairments in the Slovak Republic
-development support and education of children and youth with hearing impairment – comparative analysis on the example of five European countries aborniak-Sobczak, Katarzyna Ita Bieńkowska, Edyta Tomińska • Wydawnictwo APS • Warsaw 2017
The use of sign language was established by the adoption of Act No 149/1995 on the sign language of deaf people, section 4(b) of which states that deaf people have the right to education in sign language. This act no longer meets current needs and a new act has been submitted to the National Council of the Slovak Republic to provide a more comprehensive solution to the issue, including fundamental measures on the education of children and pupils with hearing impairments.
The educational programmes state that special schools should make educa-tion accessible for children and pupils with hearing impairments by using spe-cial methods, which may include the following:
1. poly-sensory methods
– including the use of signs (total communication, simultaneous com-munication and a bilingual approach),
– without signs (oral method).
2. mono-sensory methods – audio-verbal method.
Which method will be used in a given school is decided by the school man-agement, which must take into consideration a number of factors. In the Slovak Republic there is a clear trend that schools that were originally intended for deaf people are more inclined to use methods based on sign language and schools that were originally intended for people with partial hearing loss are more inclined to use methods based primarily on spoken language. It looks like there is a cer-tain historical inertia, and the former schools for the deaf have many pupils with severe hearing loss and often also related disabilities which make it necessary to use whatever forms of communication are available. The present situation is that three out of the six basic schools in Slovakia are oriented towards the use of the spoken language and related methods and the other three make more use of sign language. With regard to the use of sign language, schools tend to state that they use total communication or bilingual methods. Based on our experi-ence and observations in individual schools, it appears to us that schools mostly use total communication or simultaneous communication rather than a bilin-gual approach, even though every basic school in Slovakia has teachers with hearing impairments who are fluent in sign language and who have completed education in teaching pupils with hearing impairments, usually with a master’s degree. Our claim regarding the use of total and simultaneous communication is supported by the fact that it has not been possible to achieve the incorporation of sign language as a compulsory subject in the framework teaching plan, but
Darina Tarcsiová
-development support and education of children and youth with hearing impairment – comparative analysis on the example of five European countries aborniak-Sobczak, Katarzyna Ita Bieńkowska, Edyta Tomińska • Wydawnictwo APS • Warsaw 2017
only as an optional subject, which means that it does not have the same status as the spoken language, which means that one of the fundamental requirements of this approach – the equal status of both languages – is not satisfied.
Another point regarding the use of sign language is that in the new text books published after the new Schools Act was passed in 2008 and still being pub-lished, information is also provided through appendices with signs, which was not so usual in the past.
Besides special teachers and educators, the schools employ the following specialists as part of their staff for upbringing and education:
– assistant educators,
– speech therapists (including therapists specialising in assisting people with hearing impairments),
– psychologists, – social workers,
– children’s nurses with training in audiology, – technicians.
When necessary, the team also includes a teaching assistant, upbringing assistant or education worker who is fluent in sign language, an interpreter of sign language and other specialised employees. An interpreter is employed so that even when a teacher or educator does not know sign language it is possible for education to be provided using sign language.