$11m in funding for sign language
The Government is investing $11 million over 4 years to help support deaf children, their families and their schools,
says Education Minister Hekia Parata.
There are currently around 400 deaf children in New Zealand aged between 0 up to 5 years-old, and another 1400 aged
between 5 and 18 years old.
The funding will primarily go towards two initiatives:
· First Signs, which involves facilitators working with families of newly identified deaf children aged 0-5 to help them
learn sign language.
· More sign language support for schools, including more sign language tutors.
The funding will also be used to develop more learning resources for deaf children, including those available online.
“Today’s announcement will make a big difference for families with newly identified deaf children and for students
already in the education system,’’ says Ms Parata.
“For most students this will be the first time they have had regular access to sign language tutors. It will also help
teachers and teacher’s aides improve their sign language skills and provide more support to deaf students in the
classroom.
“With the right support, deaf children can grow up to be confident and attain the same levels of educational achievement
as their peers,” Ms Parata says.
The initiatives were developed with the support and guidance of an advisory group involving Deaf Aotearoa, members of
the Deaf community, Deaf educators, principals of regular schools and the principals and Board of Trustees
representatives of the two Deaf Education Centres, alongside the Ministry of Education.
“This investment will support one of our three official languages and is one of several initiatives the Government is
supporting to encourage a more bi-lingual New Zealand.
ends