Model Centre for Deaf Education and Training (MoCeDET)
This entry has been selected as a finalist in the
Champions of Quality Education in Africa competition.
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Nairobi
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Kenya
Your idea
Country your work focuses on:
Kenya
Website URL
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1-5 years
YouTube Upload
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
<$50
Name Your Project
Model Centre for Deaf Education and Training (MoCeDET)
Describe Your Idea
Innovation
Describe your idea in fewer than 50 words.
To make up for incidental or indirect learning not available to deaf children which leads them to begin school linguistically, cognitively and experientially well behind their hearing peers, MoCeDET exposes deaf children to various reading opportunities so that the innumerable instances of English constructs in their minds a workable syntax from which they learn the language.
What makes your idea unique?
Model Centre for Deaf Education and Training (MoCeDET) is a non state actor registered by the Ministry of Education, as a capacity-focused, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide education and training opportunities to deaf learners in an environment that is sensitive to their language and cultural needs, and to equip them to become self respecting and highly motivated persons.
MoCeDET recognizes technology’s strong appeal to children and therefore uses the ReadingPen to make a difference in the way deaf children learn to read. This approach allows the deaf children to be active participants in the process of learning the English language which accelerates knowledge acquisition by providing the rich input that most hearing children acquire via incidental hearing.
The persistent low levels of mastery of English are especially disturbing because they occur as the world moves ever deeper into the "information age"; a time in which society places premium on acquiring, analyzing, reporting and using information. Mastery of English is essential for such work. By using the ReadingPen, deaf children have been able to master the English language by honing their skills in vocabulary, spelling, grammar and comprehension. An ever growing proportion of business and other communication takes place today via email and other technologies. In order to take advantage of these technologies, deaf children must possess strong reading and writing skills.
For forty years, it is an unsurprising consequence that time spent in class by deaf children has not been productive in advancing their education. At MoCeDET, teaching the English language is only a supplement to active learning. The emphasis is on supporting the learning of language rather than on its teaching. The ReadingPen is the miracle that has revolutionized education of the deaf in MoCeDET.
What is your area of work? (Please check as many as apply.)
At risk youth , Behavioral issues , Early childhood development , Education , Girls' development , Mentorship , Youth development , Adult education , Communications , Community development , Information technology , Technology , Disability , HIV/AIDS , Sanitation , Disability rights , Gender equity , Indigenous cultures , Vulnerable populations .
What impact have you had?
MoCeDET has produced the first ever deaf diploma holders in the fields of computer technology, electronics engineering, beauty and hair design and hearing diploma holders in the field of sign language interpretation, in the country.
We have taken a bilingual perspective where Kenyan Sign Language is the primary language for face-to-face communication and written English, the second. This approach has had an impact on the deaf learners in three ways; first, it has provided them with the linguistic foundation and background knowledge necessary to make the second language more comprehensible. Consequently, there has been a marked improvement in the baseline results and at the one year mark using the ‘word-meter’, which is a tool we use to determine the progression of comprehension and acquisition of learning.
Secondly, the use of bilingual approach has facilitated the ability of deaf children to use language to solve problems and to participate in the types of interactions which promote higher order thinking. This has been exhibited especially at the students’ council forums where the students are able to articulate and develop successful solutions to the challenges
Describe the primary problem(s) that your project is addressing.
Most deaf people are born into a unique linguistic situation because they are nurtured in an environment that is not rich in their language, sign language. Their hearing loss prevents them from acquiring the naturally occurring spoken language in their homes. This restricts their interaction with family members which is crucial to language development. Consequently, they do not develop a strong linguistic base with which to express themselves. The crucial role of incidental or indirect learning available to hearing children from onset of birth is often underestimated hence the need for deaf children to do so much reading so that they can mirror the linguistic input hearing children acquire without conscious effort. When equipped with these competencies, these students will enjoy almost limitless academic and vocational success.
Describe the steps that your organization is taking to make your project successful.
MoCeDET has made school fun for deaf children; to start with, our school uniform is very unconventional where the students wear denim black jeans and shoes associated with travelers and tourists (safari boots). The message we are instilling is that one can look ‘cool’ going to school and this has had an incredible boost in the self esteem of the deaf learners. 50% of our staff are deaf themselves and so they act as role models to the other deaf students who aspire to pursue higher learning as a result. We have made the parents and siblings of the deaf children active participants in the learning process of the deaf students to ensure continuity during the school breaks. This has been in the form of inviting parents and siblings to serve as volunteers in the school when their time allows and the tasks have ranged from teaching, cooking and mentoring.
Impact
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Success in Year 1:
We need to have a fully stocked and functional library with trained personnel in the field of librarianship and tools that continue to enhance the learning process e.g. multimedia visual signage that will serve as dictionaries with scrolling words and their meanings, and intermittently display inspirational messages that will aid in continuing to boost the self esteem and confidence of especially the deaf girls. Another aspect is to have internet connectivity so that we can increase the exposure of ICT to our deaf learners and we can get access to electronic books via the internet.
Success in Year 2:
Financial and technical support for a deaf adult literacy class. Majority of deaf adults graduate from school without the ability to read and write. MoCeDET would like to introduce a deaf adult literacy class to apply the same principles mentioned above to those who have not had the opportunity to benefit from our successful approach, but yet need to be literate. There is empirical evidence of the correlation between the levels of education and the instances of HIV transmission, child morbidity, maternal mortality, etc. This strategy would help contribute to achieving some of the Millennium Development Goals among the deaf population. Financial and technical support
Success in Year 3:
Financial and technical support for MoCeDET to replicate and scale up the successful approach across the country and beyond the borders to reach deaf people across the East and Horn of Africa region
Do you have a business plan or strategic plan? (yes/no)
A strategic plan
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 1:
MoCeDET is a non state actor registered as a not for profit. There is empirical evidence on the correlation between poverty and disability. Majority of our students hail from very humble backgrounds. In order to achieve our mission, grow our initiative and organization, we need support for operational costs such as remuneration for our dedicated teaching and non teaching staff and financial support to continue leasing our property or acquire land to construct our own school.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 2:
Deaf people use their eyes to ‘hear’ conversation; so as they walk and ‘talk’ they are oblivious to sharp corners on walls or stairs and they often hurt themselves in the process of communicating. We wish to construct an institution that is sensitive to their needs e.g. constructing buildings that have rounded rather than sharp corners, ramps instead of staircases, doors that open on the inside, and well lit classes and dormitories, alarm vibrations on the beds in the event of a fire, installation of different colored lights to avoid embarrassment when bathrooms and toilets are occupied.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization? STEP 3:
Establishment of an endowment fund to provide scholarships to as many deaf students as possible.
Describe the expected results of these actions.
The expected results are:
a) An institution that provides educational and training opportunities for deaf learners in an environment that is sensitive to their language and cultural needs and to equip them to become self respecting and highly motivated persons.
b) Continuity of the mission without undue interruption due to lack of funds. This will increase sustainability of the initiative.
c) A larger percentage of the deaf population that is literate thus contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
After exposure and interaction with non Kenyan deaf people who were highly literate, had graduated from various universities, and were holding down admirable jobs such as engineers, lawyers, etc, it occurred to me that the challenge of low literacy rates in Kenya was not as a result of deafness but the mode of teaching especially the English language. After further interaction with my students, it confirmed that they had no mastery or comprehension of the English language and this being the language of instruction for all the other subjects taught in school, it meant that the comprehension of all those other subjects was just as lacking. So during the English lessons, I would encourage the use of dictionaries but these were cumbersome due to their bulky size. It also wasted a lot of time as the students flipped back and forth looking for the word and its meaning. Hence the introduction of the ReadingPen which highlights all the word as you read and provides the meaning concurrently.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Ms. Susan Mugwe was assigned to teach deaf children upon completion of her education program in one of the local colleges. She went back to the staffing office to complain about the ‘mistake’ in her appointment letter since she did not know nor had she been academically prepared to teach deaf children. To her surprise, the staffing office told her she will not be the first neither the last to be in this situation and she was given one week to start work or face a revocation of her appointment. Discouraged and frustrated at this turn of events, she grudgingly reported on duty on the appointed day and was mesmerized at the ‘throwing of hands all over the place’ as a means of communication. When she entered the classroom, all she could do was stare at the deaf students as they stared back at her. She had the content that the students needed but not the communication content required to transfer knowledge. Going against everything she had been socialized in, she turned and wrote on the board, ‘you teach me sign language, I teach you what you came here to learn’. Majority of the students did not comprehend the meaning of this sentence but by the end of the lesson, both the students and Ms. Susan were able to understand how the learning and teaching would take place. After several failed attempts of trying to model her teaching style to her colleagues, she decided the only thing to do was to demonstrate and model her ideals. Hence MoCeDET was born.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Through the Internet
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
What would prevent your project from being a success?
If there is no support to the actions outlined above
Financing source
yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Ministry of Education, Kenya
How long has this organization been operating? (i.e. less than a year; 1-5 years; more than 5 years)
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs? (yes/no)
yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses? (yes/no)
yes
The Story
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government? (yes/no)
yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
a) Non-monetary partnerships with NGOs – As a result of the highly skilled sign language interpreters from our institution, many organizations that work with the deaf have been requesting our assistance in forums where they require interpretation such as Kenya Society for Deaf Children, DeafAid, Kenya National Human Rights Commission, etc.
b) Non-monetary partnerships with businesses – several businesses have partnered with us through their support of materials such as text and exercise books, foodstuffs to feed our students, etc
c) Non-monetary partnerships with government – Our expertise in deaf studies and sign language has been sought by government organs such as teacher training colleges e.g. Kenya Institute of Special Education
How many people will your project serve annually?
100-1000
What is the total number of employees and total number of volunteers at your organization?
12 full time employees
What is your organization's business classification?
Non-profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Have you received funding from any of the following groups? (Please check as many as apply.)
Ford Foundation .
 | 140 weeks agoNaveen Shakir said: On July 28, 2009 the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” competition ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 146 weeks agoRaphael Ogar Oko said: I want to sincerely thank the organizers for this opportunity and for the few comments that I have read from colleagues even outside ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 146 weeks agoFran Holuba updated this Competition Entry. |
| 146 weeks agoJenna Lawrence updated this Competition Entry. |
| 146 weeks agoModel Centre for Deaf Education and Training (MoCeDET) has been chosen as a finalist in Champions of Quality Education in Africa. |
| 151 weeks agoFredrick Maina submitted this idea. |
