21 Feb 2018

Sign language for the deaf and hard hearing community is continually developing and growing as it takes into account new words in common usage today.

This was said by Assistant Minister of Basic Education, Mr Moiseraele Goya in response to a question from the Member of Parliament for Kanye South, Mr Abram Kesupile on February 20.

The assistant minister said like other languages, there were regional variations in the use of signs and their meanings.

“In 2009, my ministry through the Department of Curriculum Development and Evaluation produced a Botswana Sign Language Resource Book.”

He told Parliament that the book was distributed to centres offering deaf education as learning and teaching support material, and that it had also become a form of reference text to Botswana Sign Language.

Mr Goya pointed out that the department has also adapted the lower primary syllabi for the deaf where the use of sign language at lower level was emphasised as a medium of instruction for the deaf and hard hearing.

Furthermore, he said his ministry continued to run awareness workshops where new signs were discussed and developed.

Mr Kesupile had asked the assistant minister to state the progress regarding the development of Botswana Sign Language. ENDS