U.P. Department of Anthropology opposes abandonment of Filipino Sign Language for Hearing Impaired Persons

By Chanda Shahani

The abandonment of Filipino Sign Language as a medium of instruction for deaf education is being resisted by the University of the Philipines (U.P.) Department of Anthropology.

In a statement of concern posted on the department's website, Dr. Nestor T. Castro, Department of Anthropology Chair said, “It has come to our attention that the Department of Education (DepEd) has publicly announced that Signing Exact English (SEE) will be the official sign language to be used for Deaf Education and for training instructors in Special Education. We are alarmed with this development because SEE is not the native language of deaf persons in the Philippines. SEE is an artificial language that has been developed by hearing persons to help the Deaf learn spoken and written English. The Filipino Deaf have their own natural language, namely Filipino Sign Language (FSL). This unique language is the basis of Filipino Deaf culture and identity. It is a basic right of all citizens, including the Deaf community, to be taught and educated in their native language.

The new DepEd move violates the provisions of the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education, Policy and Organization (1994) that: “Educational policies should take full account of individual differences and situations. The importance of sign language as the medium of communication among the deaf, for example, should be recognized and provision made to ensure that all deaf persons have access to education in their national sign language,” he said.

Castro added that, “Moreover, this recent DepEd pronouncement runs counter to the Department’s own efforts to encourage education based on one’s mother tongue, as contained in DepEd Order No. 74, series of 2009. FSL is the mother tongue of Deaf Filipinos and should thus be used as the official medium of instruction for the country’s schools for the Deaf.”

This statement was approved during the Regular Faculty Meeting of the Department of Anthropology

at U.P. Diliman last September 5, 2011.

Meantime, members of the Filipino Deaf community corrected common misconceptions about their culture, language and community in a forum last October 1, 2011 at the College of Education, U.P. Diliman.

“First, there is said to be a difference between the words “deaf” with a small D and “Deaf” with a big D, and members of the Deaf community prefer to be called “Deaf.”

Second, the labels “deaf-mute”, “deaf-and-dumb”, “pipi” or “hearing-impaired” (implying that there is a medical problem that must be corrected) are not acceptable to members of the Deaf community.

Read the rest here.

Feature Story: Dr. Patrick Azanza: An ICT Visionary for U.P. President

By: Prof. Ruby Rosa Jimenez

Dr. Patrick Azanza

Since 2008, the University of the Philippines (UP), the country’s one and only national university, has been overtaken by the Ateneo de Manila University in the Times Higher Education - Quacquarelli Symonds (THE-QS) world university ranking survey. In fact, in the recent 2010 Asian universities ranking, Ateneo ranked 58th while UP ranked only 78th among 200 Asian universities. There are comments from inside and outside of the academic halls that the quality of UP education has declined through the years. The present UP administration insists that the university did not participate in the said surveys but some quarters are not impressed with what they termed as a lame excuse for not being able to live up to the university’s tradition of academic excellence.

However, some UP student leaders even publicly acknowledge the declining quality of UP education. Despite the congressional approval of the UP Charter of 2008 which aims to modernize UP, the present administration has yet to make concrete steps to upgrade the salaries of its faculty and staff, and improve the university’s instructional and laboratory facilities. The serious consequences of the university’s inability to address its management and financial woes is summed up in the tally of the 2010 board topnotchers where out of 25 licensure examinations, UP only topped in four disciplines, namely: architecture, teacher education (elementary level), geodetic engineering, and nutritionist-dietician. This is a stark contrast to the performance of UP in the past decades when it used to dominate almost all of the country’s professional board examinations.

It is under this condition that the members of the UP Board of Regents will soon choose the next President of the country’s premiere university. Several groups of faculty members, academic leaders, administrative staff, students, and alumni of UP have already been echoing their demand for change in the way the university is being managed. They could not bear seeing UP further slide down as it confronts the challenges of the 21st century. Obviously, the university needs someone who has both the vision and the proven ability to modernize the institution.

 (To read the rest of the feature story, please click on this link: http://diliman-diary-sidebars.blogspot.com/2010/09/feature-story-dr-patrick-azanza-ict.html)