Interpreter Shortage Leaves Students Fighting To Keep Up

For students who rely on sign language interpreters, the start of the school year brought an unexpected barrier to learning. Several schools across the country found themselves without enough interpreters, forcing the Ministry of Education to put temporary measures in place while seeking a solution. Weeks later, the challenge remains, and Education Minister Francis Fonseca says there is no quick fix. He explains that finding and training qualified interpreters takes time, but insists the ministry is working to ensure hearing-impaired students receive the support they need.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“Just that we continue to advertise. We continue to recruit, to offer training opportunities, scholarship opportunities. There is no overnight fix for that challenge. There is no easy solution for it. But we are working on those issues, providing more training opportunities, certificate programs, scholarships. We are advertising for more of these persons. We are working with UB to design programs so that we can train more of them. We are doing all we can, but there is no easy fix.”

 

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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