Effect of Kenyan Sign Language on Academic Performance of Learners with Hearing Impairment; A Case Of Kedowa Special School, Kericho County, Kenya

The purpose of the study was to establish the effect of Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment in Kedowa Special School, Kericho County, Kenya. The government has done all it could to make KSL an acceptable mode of communication to the deaf and the hearing. This includes its recognition in the new Constitution and its inclusion as an examinable subject in the National examinations. Despite all these efforts, it has been noted that learners with hearing impairments continue to lag behind their hearing peers in the national examinations like Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (K.C.P.E) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E). The study employed a case study as its research design and used interviews, archival records, questionnaires and observation as its instruments. The reliability of the instruments was determined using the test-re-test method while its validity was determined by the help of KSL experts and the researcher’s lecturers and supervisors. A purposive sampling technique was used to arrive at the sample size of 181 respondents. Data was analyzed using the SPSS version 21 by first categorizing the responses from the different respondents, editing them and then computing them in respect to the objectives and research questions of the study. The findings of the study, showed that KSL was not used in the schools due to lack of teaching materials and resources like books hence the Ministry of Education should provide adequate teaching and learning resources for special schools for the deaf for successful implementation of KSL.