Students campaign to have Irish Sign Language as a Leaving Cert subject

Two deaf students are campaigning to have Irish Sign Language (ISL) made a Leaving Certificate examination subject.

The passing by the Oireachtas of the Irish Sign language Act of 2017 gave ISL official language status, alongside Irish and English, but it is not available as a Leaving Certificate exam subject.

National charity for deaf and hard of hearing people, Chime, said there are over 5,000 deaf and hard of hearing students in the Irish education system, with 95 per cent of those in mainstream schooling.

There are approximately 40,000 daily deaf and hearing users of ISL.

Shane Hamilton, 17, and Ellie Woods, 18, both Leaving Certificate students at the Holy Family School for the Deaf in Dublin’s Cabra, said they and other students who are users of ISL are being unfairly disadvantaged in the third level points race.

Currently, the State Examinations Commission (SEC) provides Leaving Certificate examinations in a range of what it refers to as ‘non-curricular EU…

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