Goal fulfilment in school for the deaf and hearing impaired - batod

Just less than one-third of the parents are oftenor always actively involved in the school’sparental activities and a slightly larger proportionof the pupils are often or always active in theschool’s pupil democracy groups. Two-thirds ofthe teachers think that the pupils can often oralways pursue their interests independently atschool.Of the 1,305 teachers who responded to thisquestion, 98% of them think that the pupilsoften or always feel secure at school. This isthe same figure as that with which the parentsresponded. There is no significant differencebetween the types of school. This is a higherfigure than was reported by special schools in2003 (Utredningsinstitutet Handu 2003).About schoolsMost parents usually choose a school which isclosest to home. In the National Agency forEducation’s survey of 2003, 80% of parents gavethis response. On account of circumstances,parents of hearing impaired and deaf childrenare, however, impelled to choose a school on thebasis of other criteria than parents of childrenwith normal hearing (see tables 25 and 26).Many parents of pupils with moderate to severehearing impairments select a school on thebasis of access to hearing technology. Manymake the choice on a recommendation fromthe audiological health care service. For parentsof deaf pupils, sign language and bilingualismare the most important factors in the choice ofschool.Many parents say that they are pleased or verypleased with their choice. Parents of pupils atclasses for the hearing impaired are the mostsatisfied – 88%. This result corresponds well withother surveys (Hässleholms kommun 2005). Asregards special schools, 78% of the parents arepleased or very pleased.Mobility between the types of schools is relativelysmall even if a certain mobility always does exist(Thoutenhoofd 2006). On the basis of 1,660parent responses, it is apparent that the greatestmobility is among pupils moving betweenschools for hearing impaired and ordinarycompulsory schools. But a large proportionof pupils choose to go directly from ordinarycompulsory schools to special schools.Even if there are quite natural reasons for thesemoves, nevertheless there are complicationsfor pupils, for example in the adaptation ofpremises and different communication methods(Wrennstad Gyllenram 2006).There are discussions within schools for thehearing impaired and special schools as towhether pupils from compulsory schools oftenchange to these types of schools because ofencountering significant difficulties at a previoustype of school. Pupils with difficulties thatdevelop gradually in a non-adapted environmentand that, in addition, are perhaps discovered late,are not easy to rehabilitate in the space of a fewyears in schools for hearing impaired or specialschools. Table 27 shows, on the basis of ourquestionnaire responses, pupil mobility betweenthe different types of schools. Freedom of choiceis considerable in Sweden, as regards types ofschools for deaf and hearing impaired pupils, incomparison with many other countries.In response to the question whether the childhad repeated a year 7 , an average of about 10%of the parents said that their child had. In thiscase there was no difference between the types ofschools.It goes almost without saying that the differenttypes of schools should provide equal educationirrespective of hearing impairment. If the typesof schools are looked at from an historicalperspective, special schools have distinguishedthemselves by only using sign language, while7If parents apply, School head have a possibility to decide a retention year for a pupil. (See Compulsory School Ordinance(1994:1194))Goal fulfilment in school for the deaf and hearing impaired53