When the COVID-19 pandemic closed Lina’s school in Rabat, Marrocos, she feared she wouldn’t be able to keep up with her education at home well enough to graduate into middle school.
Lina, 13, is deaf. And whileschool closurespose challengeé for all students, those with disabilitiesfaceextraordinary hurdles in accessing remote learning.
“I was so concerned. The schools closed because of the coronavirus, and we stayed home. Howwas I going to study?” Lina recalls. “I felt so sad … no onecould teach me. My mom doesn’t know sign language.”
When the pandemic began, the Moroccan Ministry of Educationcreated extensive online learning resourcesparaprimary school students.Without sign language interpretation, no entanto, these lessons weren’t reaching students like Lina.
Os EUA. Agência para o Desenvolvimento Internacional’s Reading for Success-National Program for Reading partnered with the ministry toclose this gap. The program supports professional interpreters and teacherspararecordlessons for grades 1-6 emMoroccan SignLanguage, covering allprimary schoolcoresubjects. The ministry uploads the lessonspara its online learning portal and broadcasts them on national television channelé.
“I saw new sign language lessons on TV. árabe, Francês, Islamic education, math, everything. I was so happy! I took my notebook and started copying the lessons and learning from the TV,” Lina says. “I kept writing and learning step by step.”
Since recording began in May 2020, the interpreters have producedabout half of the 556 total lessons. The work continues, and the ministry expects to complete the interpretation of every lesson for grades 1-6 by July 2021.
With remote education opportunities within reach throughout much of2020, Lina was able to complete her coursework andhas started her first year of middle school.
