FACE TO FACE EDUCATION EXCITEMENT OF VISUALLY AND HEARING IMPARED STUDENTS

23 March 2021 17:03

While the Covid-19 pandemic causes interruption in the education of billions of students in the World, disabled students in Turkey are getting full time face to face education by following mask, distancing and hygiene rules.

The Ministry of National Education has carried out various different activities for the development of digital training materials for disabled students in order to prevent any interruption in the education of special students during the pandemic and the distance education period.

The Ministry continues to work in an effort to provide opportunities for teachers who are working with disabled students to actively use TRT EBA channels.

The Ministry of National Education translated all teaching materials into sign language and published approximately 200 audio description lesson videos in EBA internet page and mobile applications.

Moreover, the Ministry continues to work on more than 4 thousand audio description lesson videos. These videos will be available in digital platforms.

After March 2, the Ministry of National Education had started face to face education in all special education schools in the entire country. Special students are getting full time face to face education in 4- 8 student classrooms for five days a week. All schools follow social distancing rules.

Almost all students are in schools in order to get face to face education

There are a total of 10 thousand hearing impaired students in the entire country and the majority of these students are using sign language while some are reading lips and communicating through gesture and facial expression.

Kemal Yurtbilir Secondary School for the Hearing Impaired Principal Cengiz Polat stated that distance education witnessed a great development since last March after the detection of the first corona patient in the country.

"Distance education cannot be as successful as the face to face education. But, we have worked in an effort to give the best to our students during the pandemic. Since November, we reached special students through EBA and special training materials on the EBA platform," said Polat.

Noting that schools took advanced measures about mask, social distancing and hygiene after the beginning of face to face education, Polat stated, "We were comfortable on March 2 when we started face to face education because we had taken all measures against the pandemic. 94 percent of our students are currently getting face to face education."

Stressing the importance of face to face education especially for hearing impaired students; Polat said schools must continue face to face education despite the pandemic.

There are approximately 6 thousand visually impaired students in the country. These students strictly obey hygiene rules and continue face to face education.

Mithat Enç Secondary School for the Visually Impaired Principal Hasan Altın stated that Turkey has made progress regarding hygiene and mask rules. Meanwhile, visually impaired teacher Bekir Boztaş stressed that these students mainly use tactile and auditory training materials adding that these materials are constantly cleansed and students are always warned about hand hygiene in order to take measures against the pandemic.