Schools could add sign language to curriculum: Justice Dept

The Justice Department says both public and private schools could incorporate Sign Language into their curriculum as an additional language.

The department says it wants to amend the Constitution to make Sign Language the 12th official language in South Africa.

Once passed into law, Sign Language will be accorded the same status as English, isiZulu and siSwati among others.

Deputy Minister of Justice, John Jeffery says the Department of Basic Education made significant headway in implementing certain policies regarding Sign Language.

“The Department of Basic Education has already moved quite far in terms of ensuring the implementations of the provisions of South African sign language. I would have thought that any member of the public accessing government services who is deaf and using sign language will be entitled to communicate with sign language and arrangements would need to be made for somebody to assist in communicating if there is nobody in the house.”

Cabinet approved the Constitutional 18th Amendment Bill for public comment to recognise Sign Language as the 12th official language:

The public has 30 days to comment on a proposed amendment of the Constitution to make sign language South Africa’s 12th official language.

This follows numerous calls for sign language to be given official recognition by the deaf community in South Africa which is estimated to be around four million people.

Although the Constitution mentions sign language, it does not give it official status. The deaf community is often marginalised in terms of service delivery and access to information.

Having the language they use to communicate, declared an official language, would open up their world more.