Deaf School
June, 2003
| The Maryknoll Deaf Development Program teaches sign language and literacy to deaf people in Phnom Penh and four provinces. The program in Svay Rieng Province consists of a self-contained deaf classroom located in a government school. |
 Originally in the office of an NGO, the deaf classroom was moved to a government school to help the Ministry of Education take responsibility for teaching all children, including those with disabilities. Most of the school is made of concrete, but the building housing the deaf classroom (far right) is made of mud mixed with straw. |
 The building housing the deaf classroom is made by a process called "wattle and daub." It consists of setting up vertical poles with sticks connecting them, and then that framework is covered with a mixture of mud and straw. Holes easily develop in the walls where they are kicked or poked with sticks or when they are softened by water from the leaky roof. |
 The school principal pointed out that two classes of hearing students are in the same decrepit building with the deaf classroom. He isn't discriminating against the deaf. Rather he just doesn't have any money to provide a better learning space for either deaf or hearing students. |
 The most modern part of the school is the toilet, provided by the Cambodian Red Cross. Surprisingly, it has a western-style toilet in one of the stalls. A ramp for mobility-impaired students is provided, but the doorway and room inside the stall would not be adequate for a student in a wheelchair. |
 A building is not a school without students. Here the deaf pupils enjoy recess outside their classroom. The students in this class range in age from 10 to 32. (Those are asbestos panels forming the roof.) |