13 October 2026

Only three schools for South Africa’s Deaf learners teach maths, writes Edward van Niekerk, vocational programme coordinator at Belgium Campus iTversity.

Children as young as 13 must make subject choices that can shape what they study later and, ultimately, the careers open to them. It’s a big decision for such young learners, who may well change their minds multiple times before finishing school.

For Deaf learners, that decision is substantially more difficult because not every school offers the subject they wish to study, which can cut them off from several career choices.

This has a broader impact because Deaf learners may be cut off from fields desperately short of skills, including artificial intelligence, cyber security and software development.