FIROZKOH (Pajhwok): A number of deaf people in western Ghor province, who are receiving education in a special school, say that disability is not limiting their ability and they will continue their struggle for progress but complained about absence of standard classes.
In Ghor province, a high school which provides education to 26 deaf people has been set up by Global Partner for Education in Firozkoh, the capital of the province. This school currently operates in a few limited rooms in the Department of Disabilities and Martyrs of Ghor. Mahtab is a deaf girl who, despite her disability, has good skills in painting and art. She says that deafness will not hinder her progress.
Sixteen-year-old Mahtab, a resident of Firozkoh city, is currently in the ninth grade of high school and is one of the top students in her class. In one of her latest art works, the girl has painted the Ghori dynasty and said that disability was not inability. When asked about her motive for painting Ghori kings, Mahtab said, “I chose them because they worked so hard, they studied hard until they reached the position of kingship, Sultan Raziah was one of the most successful women of Ghor leaders, and I want to convey it to all my classmates and like-minded people, that Raziah was a woman who worked hard and led a king with many hardships.”
Mahtab is very interested in education, saying that although she was injured in her eyes in a car bomb blast near their school last year, but she continued her education. “We were in class and it was around 10am when a horrible explosion happened, it was very horrific in which 18 of my classmates injured, I was also injured on my eye; it was a bad situation but we continued our education and did not stop our school,” she said.
It is 8am and Mahtab is getting ready to go to the special school of the deaf people, which was established10 years ago. Every morning, with passion, she walks a long distance along the Harirod River to reach her school. The school for the deaf does not have a specific building and the deaf students are learning in a few rooms in a part of the Department of Martyrs and the Disabled of Ghor.
Students of the school, in addition to learning school subjects, also learn English and computer. Mahtab said they learn all the subjects professionally from their teachers and received computer education with the help of a projector. She said that her family and teachers are good motivators for her progress.
Zaboor, Mahtab’s older brother, said that her sister had great talent in learning and the art of painting and she was able to create valuable arts despite having access to limited resources. “Mahtab Jan is very interested in studying and drawing, you can see her work, with little resources, she can draw and paint the best arts; her disability has never been a weakness and she always paint great arts,” he said. Naib, another deaf student of the school, said, “I am also a deaf student, I study in school; I come to school at 8am… our teachers instruct us professionally, we have a projector in the class which teachers use for instructing us about the human skeleton, teeth, eyes and all other good things.”
“We struggle for our education, but we have limited facilities, and unfortunately we lost our facilities in the last year’s explosion and a number of our classmates injured,” he said. The deaf students thanked Global Partner for Education and called on the government and other national and international institutions to provide them with an independent school building as well as needed facilities so that they can be educated in a better environment.
Noor Ahmad and Khalil, two teachers at the school for the deaf, said despite they having limited resources, they try a lot to provide quality education to their students. He added that the school has been active since nine years now but lack of standard classes is one of their main challenges.
Meanwhile, Abdul Hakim Samir, head of Department of Martyrs and Disabled People of Ghor, said that they knew about the skills and talents of deaf students and asked government and international institutes to help provide the students with needed facilities. “The deaf have the ability and are good people. We are trying to help them and provide them with a school building, currently we share two rooms of the Department of Martyrs and Disabled People with them,” he said. There are 26 students in the high school for deaf in Firozkoh city, including nine girls.