KOICA completes extension of project for hearing impaired students 

AMMAN — As part of the Korea International Cooperation Agency’s (KOICA) support of inclusivity in education, the agency cooperated with the Ministry of Education  and the Higher Council for the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities (HCD) to conduct an extension of KOICA’s project, “Establishment of Special School for Hearing Impaired Students in Marka”, which was completed in 2017. 

The post-implementation support consists of two subprojects. The first is titled “Technical support for Marka school special education teachers and other special education teachers in special schools”, conducted in cooperation with the Education Ministry, according to a KOICA statement. 

The second subproject is titled “Conducting an Assessment of Sign Language on Primary and Secondary Deaf Students and Those Who are Hard-of-Hearing”, conducted in cooperation with the HCD, the statement said.

The Education Ministry’s subproject was successfully completed this month with the support of a special team of Korean consultants from Soon Chun Hyang University, who worked to improve the quality of special education for students with hearing impairments in Jordan.

Three workshops have been conducted since May as part of the subproject. The beneficiaries are 55 primary and secondary school special education teachers from Marka school and two specialised schools in Zarqa and Salt. 

The workshops mainly focused on enhancing special education teachers’ capacity in educating deaf students by introducing new teaching methods, maximising the utilisation of hearing equipment and providing opportunities for hands-on practice of the new skills, read the statement.

Regarding the second subproject, the statement said that a memorandum of understanding was signed between KOICA and the HCD on September 1, 2021, allowing for a project that will establish an action plan to strengthen sign language education. 

This partnership will help the students with social inclusion and provide them with a higher quality of education. The HCD is currently in the process of assigning a team of international sign language experts to start conducting the project assessment by the end of this year.