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Chime met with Minister for Special Education Hildegarde Naughton.

Chime met with Minister for Special Education Hildegarde Naughton to seek an update on the publication of educational outcomes for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children.

Chime met with the Minister for Special Education Hildegarde Naughton to seek an update on the publication of educational outcomes for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children. Chime sees this as a critical step in finding out if D/HH students are reaching their potential, at a time when, according to many reports from parents, they are receiving less support in school now than they were in previous years.

Minister Naughton’s predecessor Josepha Madigan confirmed in January that she had asked the NCSE to provide the Department of Education with a report on educational outcomes later in 2024.

Additionally, Holy Family School student Shane Hamilton told the Minister that he wants to do an exam in Irish Sign Language in his Leaving Certificate in 2025. Chime understands that it is the policy of the State Examinations Commission to grant such requests subject to certain conditions.

These include that the language must be recognised as a language in an EU country – ISL is officially recognised in Ireland since 2017  – and that the student must be following a full Leaving Certificate programme, which Shane is doing. Shane will shortly be applying to the State Examinations Commission to complete an exam in ISL under their Non-Curricular EU Languages provision.