FIC CHAMPIONS DEAF EDUCATION IN MALAWI EDUCATION CENTRE FOR THE DEAF - MARY VIEW P.O. Box 51075 Limbe - Malawi Phone: +265 (0) 191 60 16

When Brothers FIC arrived in Malawi in 1960, there were no schools for deaf children in the country. Therefore, in 1968 Br Hortensius J.H. Meeuws was asked to conduct a pilot project to test if the congregation could start oral schools for profoundly deaf children. Upon a successful completion of the pilot in 1971 the Education Center for the Deaf in Mary View was officially opened. Currently, there are four boarding schools for the Deaf in Malawi with a capacity of 600 learners. Three of these; Mary View, Mua and Mountain View schools are owned by FIC Brothers and are under the administration of the Education Centre for the Deaf..   Br Hortensious testing a deaf learner

From the World Health Organization's survey carried out in 2005, we know that in a population of 10.000.000 people in Malawi you may expect 300 children with severe hearing loss every year. Given Malawi`s population of 12 million people it can be estimated that there are more that 3000 children of school age with severe hearing problems. Dr Kamuzu Banda officially opened the centre   The three schools of the brothers are oral schools for profoundly deaf children. The main objective is that when children leave school after fourteen years they should be able to communicate with the people they are going to live and work with. Deaf adults are surrounded for most of the time by hearing people and the demand of everyday life necessitates a considerable amount of exchange with people who speak and do not sign. This objective implies that the schools must try to select pupils who are normally gifted children without additional handicaps. Children with additional handicaps need a different approach altogether. There is great need for a special department for deaf children with additional handicaps, with special trained teachers for sign language and finger spelling. They need to set up diagnostic procedures to find out more about the problems of a particular child.

An anonymous educator wrote, "A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, touches the heart and shapes the future." This is what we gratefully see happening to numerous learners in our schools for the deaf in last 42 years. Time without count, we have witnessed the reenactment of the miracle in Tyre: "He has done all things well" they said, "he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak." (Mark 7:31-37). Not without a sense of pride, we feel blessed. "Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, 'Ephphatha,' that is, 'Be opened.' And his ears were opened, and at once the impediment of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly."   Br Hubrecht teaches handcraft

Challenges: Though Malawi is a signatory to many declarations on Education for all, provision of education to learners with hearing impairment remains inadequate. This is mainly due to lack of financial, material and human resources. The other reason is that education for learners with special needs has long been regarded as "Church business" with little attention from the Government. Br Henk van Henk on speech therapy

Our schools for hearing impaired Children are so-called Grand-Aided Institutions. A Grand Aided Educational Institution is a school or college owned by a Proprietor other that the Minister of Education and established and maintained with the financial assistance of the Ministry of Education. The Proprietor puts up the physical plants in terms of buildings, basic furniture and equipment, electrification, water services and communication facilities. The Government is supposed to provide funds for a smooth running of these institutions.

Br Ludwin Speth pickiniking with deaf learners and SBVM Sisters

The biggest problem the schools are facing is that the Government does not keep its obligation to fund the schools sufficiently. With only an allocation of 320 euro per month from the Government, you cannot run a boarding school with 170 hearing impaired children. This boils down to the simple fact that the Government cannot adequately finance these money and man-power consuming institutions.

There is a beautiful the slogan that goes: "Free education for all" , this also includes "children with special needs". On the contrary, primary schools in Malawi are in general poorly funded; it is not uncommon in that one primary school teacher teaches hundred children in one class. Special Needs school require the government to provide them with ten teachers for hundred deaf children, who are all boarders and in need of boarding facilities and expensive hearing aids. The reality makes the slogan a mockery.

Back to homepage