Miss-Delectable

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?s...3657376C291137

Durban teacher Ingrid Parkin has become the first deaf deputy principal of a school in the history of education in the developing world.

Parkin, 33, has taken over the management post at the Fulton School for the Deaf in Gillitts, where she has been teaching for the past nine years.

And the pupils are delighted as they feel that for the first time someone in a management position understands what it is like to be deaf and that they are represented at the top level.

Parkin points out that deaf should always be spelled with a capital D as it is a language and a cultural group - and the biggest disability group in the country with 1,5 million deaf sign language users.

She says it is a big achievement for the deaf community as it proves there is nothing a deaf person cannot do.

A highly-qualified teacher, Parkin is also on the national task team set up by the government to develop sign language and to come up with a dictionary, as well as being the education consultant for DeafSA, the deaf foundation.

And she is ambitious, having set herself a goal of getting somewhere within 10 years, or she would move on and perhaps become a consultant, advising universities on the needs of the Deaf and their rights in the workplace.

But then, just after the birth of her second daughter, Shayla, now four months old - her other daughter, Leya, is three - she was interviewed for the deputy principal's post and landed the job in time for the start of the school year.

She is still teaching and wants to use her new position to raise the level of sign language among teachers.

"Teachers have different levels of proficiency," she explained.

According to a survey, only 14 percent of people teaching the Deaf could "sign" properly and this was a huge problem.

One of her aims was to make the whole curriculum accessible to pupils.

Parkin said that many deaf children born to hearing parents who did not do sign language went to school with no language whatsoever.

"They had six wasted years before coming to school. Some did not even know their own names," she said, Parkin added that parents should be encouraged to learn the language of the deaf.

"Parents of deaf children don't have to have low expectations of them anymore."

Parkin pointed out that Fulton ran sign language classes on Saturdays.

She said she would like to represent deaf people in the national education department.

Had the introduction of sign language in news bulletins not helped, we asked?

While it was a "wonderful foot in the door," there were many who would prefer subtitles as there were many different dialects of sign language and not everyone understood them.

Parkin is married to Olympic swimmer, Terence Parkin, and their daughters can both hear.

The oldest, Leya, began learning sign language at seven months.

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