Benilde’s Center for Education Advancement of the Deaf-Model Learning Institute on Deaf Centered Education (CEAD-MLITEDCE), in support of the Benilde Deaf School’s (BDS) goal to be the exemplary Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education school in the country, launched the Deaf-Centered Bilingual Education Faculty Development Program (DCBE-FDP) last 19-22 March 2024 at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s (DLS-CSB) Benilde Deaf School, Saint Mutien-Marie Hall, Taft Campus. Succeeding sessions after 08 April 2024 will be held through BigSky Benilde.

The launch included face-to-face sessions facilitated by the program developer, Dr. Christopher Kurz, Professor for the Masters of Science in Secondary Education program and Director of the Mathematics and Science Language and Learning Lab at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester Institute of Technology.

The DCBE-FDP is a six-module diploma course that aims to provide BDS faculty with updated developments on bilingual education strategies to enhance their current implementation across BDS subjects. Aside from BDS faculty, attendees of the program launch were other Deaf educators, researchers from CEAD Deaf Heritage and FSL Studies (DHFSLS), Deaf Teacher Certificate Program (TCP) trainees from Benilde Antipolo, and select faculty from the School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies (SDEAS).

CEAD-MLITEDCE supports BDS by developing Filipino Sign Language (FSL) learning materials and documenting best practices and its impact on Deaf Learners, which in turn helps Benilde replicate the positive results in BDS to be shared to other Deaf schools, thus alleviating learning gaps among Deaf children.

CEAD-MLITEDCE is made possible through the support of The Nippon Foundation.