Scaling with Intention: Early Lessons from Building Sign-Language-Rich Environments for Deaf Children in Kenya, Rwanda, and Malawi

Language is a human right. For Deaf children, that means that access to national sign languages early, consistently, and everywhere they learn and live is a moral and legal obligation. Across Kenya, Rwanda, and Malawi, four organisations—eKitabu, Kentalis International Foundation, Open Development & Education, and Busara—are working to scale sign-language-rich, early-learning environments for Deaf children from the very beginning of their formal education experience. Backed by the Global Partnership for Education’s Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (GPE KIX) and through the Research on Scaling the Impact of Innovations in Education (ROSIE) project, this multi-country effort is rooted in the conviction that inclusive, intentional, and community-driven strategies are essential for scaling. This blog shares what we are learning during the scaling process and how these insights contribute to our understanding of what it takes to scale with impact.

Our scaling strategy is rooted in co-leadership with Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), ensuring that Deaf communities are at the center of design, decision-making, and delivery. OPDs are not just stakeholders; they are strategic partners in contextualizing the approach, providing teacher training and advocacy, and bringing lived experience and expertise to each stage of the process. At the same time, we are committed to embedding our innovation inside existing systems, rather than operating in parallel or outside. This means aligning our work with national Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) curricula, teacher training institutions, and inclusive education policies in each country to ensure that the change we desire becomes part of the education systems.

Conducting the work of these three components comprises our strategy, while simultaneously allowing for co-creation and local adaptation. By combining strong partnerships with OPDs, systemic integration, and a clearly defined model, we are pursuing an approach that can be scaled flexibly across countries while staying rooted in the needs and realities of Deaf children and their communities. 

Emerging learnings thus far

1. Scaling is a collaborative process. Between 2024 and early 2025, we held national kickoff events and Parents Awareness Workshops (PAW) across the three countries, engaging Ministries of Education, Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) practitioners, research partners, and families of Deaf children. Through PAWs, parents and caregivers were introduced to sign language, inclusive education, and deaf identity, fostering confidence and inclusion at home.

The Malawi PAW survey results, below, tell a compelling story of growth and readiness to scale. The graph below shows the impact of the PAW, with gains across three categories: parental confidence to care and communicate, sign language knowledge, and preparedness to support Deaf children. The graph highlights that parents are not barriers to inclusion, they are partners—and workshops like these that increase awareness and include parents in the process are an essential beginning step for scaling. As one mother said, “I thought I couldn’t talk to my child. Now I know we both have a way to learn together.”

2. Teachers Need Practical Support to Implement Innovation

Creating sign-language-rich environments cannot rely on passion alone. Many teachers across the three countries are eager to support deaf learners, but they are often overworked, under-resourced, and unsure of how to begin. Scaling must include solutions that address teachers’ workload, skills, and access to resources. That’s why we are focusing on the deployment of Deaf support teachers in classrooms to work alongside teachers.

In several schools, the idea of deploying Deaf support teachers, as we mentioned, to model classroom sign language was met with enthusiasm. Teachers said that having Deaf colleagues could help them build their confidence, while normalizing sign language use among all learners.

“I want to use sign language, but I need someone to help me know if I’m doing it right,” one ECDE teacher in Kenya said during the kickoff event.

“When we work together, we all learn, including the hearing children,” said a Deaf support teacher from Karonga in Malawi.

Other solutions that emerged to support teachers adopt inclusive practices include

• provide sign language adapted learning materials to use with students, like leveled readers with visual supports
• digital content and training to build ICT skills for inclusive teaching
• inclusion of sign language in lesson plans and classroom routines

Ensuring there is adequate support, time, and resources for teachers to adopt and adapt new teaching practices is a key challenge when scaling education initiatives. It is not enough to provide one-time training or resources - ongoing support, like this model of having a deaf co-teacher embedded in the classroom working alongside the teacher, is essential for sustainable impact.

3. Government Engagement Must Be Durable

In all three countries, we’re working with ministries of education to ensure alignment with ECCE goals. But early learning has reminded us that turnover in many public-sector offices is real, and working relationships must go beyond a single person.

To ensure continuity, we are

• building relationships with mid-level technical officers who often remain in their posts longer than elected or appointed officers;
• documenting and tracking policy linkages, such as language of instruction frameworks;
• collaborating with OPDs and research institutions to tap into and establish institutional memory.

In Rwanda, for example, we aligned our work with the national ECD priorities under the Ministry of Education and Rwanda Education Board (REB), while also engaging the Rwanda National Union of the Deaf and the Inclusive Education Unit. 

4. Culture and Mindsets Can Make or Break Scaling

Beliefs matter. They shape our communities' responses to inclusion initiatives, especially beliefs about deafness and disability. In many places, we encountered persistent stereotypes, such as the notion that Deaf children are “slow” or "uneducatable." 

But seeing is believing. During the Parents Awareness Workshops, parents met Deaf adults who shared powerful stories of learning, working, raising families, and giving back as teachers. These moments weren't just informative, they were transformative. 

One father in Malawi said, “Before this, I thought my child was lost to me. But when I saw the Deaf teacher signing, I realized my son has a future too.”

This kind of emotional and cognitive shift is what makes scaling truly meaningful. Prior scaling research has shown that scaling is not simply a technical process. Successful scaling involves engaging with the broader environment, including power dynamics, societal attitudes, and personal beliefs. Doing the work of naming beliefs and shifting existing mindsets, particularly around disability, is a difficult process that requires care, understanding, and empathy. Attending to these significant but often overlooked human qualities is essential for creating social change that will last beyond a single project timeline or initiative.

As this work continues and we prepare for the next phases of our scaling strategy, one learning has stood out: scaling starts long before a program expands. It starts with trust and collaboration with communities; centering the dignity of Deaf children to be seen, heard, and supported from the beginning; and paying attention to all stakeholder needs.