Deaf News: Deaf children achieve one grade lower in GCSE scores than hearing classmates

A large majority – 71 per cent – of deaf children did not achieve a “good” grade 5 pass in GCSE English and maths, new data has revealed.

Department for Education figures also show that, at GCSE level, an attainment gap between deaf children and students with no special educational needs (SEN) widened in the past year.

Just 46 per cent of deaf pupils achieved a grade 4/C or above in both English and maths GCSE last year, compared with 70.4 per cent of their peers without SEN. That 24.4 percentage-point gap was up from 22.7 in 2016.

Deaf children are also achieving more than a whole grade less at GCSE, despite deafness not being classed as a learning disability.

The figures come within weeks of a report suggesting widespread national problems with deaf children’s education. The report shows that in the past seven years, there has been a 14 per cent cut in the number of specialist teachers, with 15 per cent of councils now having only one specialist teacher to support more than 100 deaf children.

Read the full article here: https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/attainment-gap-between-deaf-pupils-and-their-peers-widens