New school raises hopes of higher education for West Bank's hearing-impaired
Al Amal Association for the Deaf is set to open the first high school for the deaf in the West Bank by spring 2019, which would give hearing-impaired students the chance to continue their education.
The construction of a new high school, a stone’s throw away from the separation fence along the Green Line, is a dream come true for Moujahed Abu al-Tin. The 16-year-old who can't hear or speak and hails from the village of Kafr Qaddum in the West Bank had long given up hope of continuing his education beyond elementary school.
There are no high schools for the hearing-impaired in the West Bank, so most students turn to vocational training instead.
“Ever since the age of 11, I have tried learning carpentry because I knew that academic learning for the deaf in my country stops in ninth grade,” Tin told Al-Monitor through a sign language interpreter. “With the construction of this new high school, I hope to go to college and become a civil engineer.”
The school, called the Big Heart School, is the initiative of the Al Amal Association for the Deaf, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) founded in 1994 in the town of Qalqilya by a group of deaf residents. The association currently runs a primary school — Al Amal School for the Deaf — that provides education for 65 students until ninth grade. The association also provides vocational courses for the hearing-impaired, such as carpentry, metalworking, sewing and computer repairs.
