On Monday 19th November 2018, Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP, Secretary of State for Education publicly announced that both the Department for Education (DfE) and Ofqual are separately reviewing a proposal from Signature, in regard to a GCSE in British Sign Language (BSL). This was announced at the Hearing Loss: 100 Years of Adult Education at City Lit parliamentary event in London.
Following the announcement, Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP released a tweet stating:
‘The significance of BSL – the language of an estimated 70k deaf people in the UK – cannot be underestimated. I was pleased to confirm that DfE & Ofqual are in the process of reviewing a proposal for a BSL GCSE’
Statement from Lindsay Foster, Executive Director at Signature
‘We are happy to announce that Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP, Secretary of State for Education, has publically acknowledged that Signature’s proposal for a GCSE in British Sign Language (BSL) has been received. Both The Department of Education (DfE) and Ofqual are now separately considering the proposal.
I am proud of the work undertaken by Signature to produce this proposal, and I feel that this very much demonstrates our ability and commitment to make the GCSE a reality. It is extremely encouraging that the government can appreciate the great significance of BSL for the deaf community.
Although we are still in the early stages, I consider this to be another positive step in our fight to achieve a GCSE in BSL.’
