Deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Slovenia: academic achievement, experiences with schooling and professional aspirations

The present study examines the academic performance, satisfaction with schooling and professional aspirations of 78 deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students from regular primary schools, regular secondary schools, special primary schools and one special secondary school. The D/HH students completed a questionnaire about their experiences with schooling and professional aspirations, while their final school grades were obtained from each school at the end of the school year. A comparison of final grades in Slovenian language, mathematics and foreign language, as well as the grade point average, reveals that students in special primary and special secondary schools achieve significantly lower academic results than students in regular primary and regular secondary schools. Qualitative analysis indicates that students from special primary and special secondary schools have lower aspirations in comparison to students from regular primary and regular secondary schools, while quantitative analysis of the data shows that, although D/HH students are fairly satisfied with their schooling, the lowest level of satisfaction is demonstrated by students from the special secondary school included in the study. In the future, it will be important to examine the key factors that contribute to the identified differences between students in special and regular schools regarding satisfaction with schooling, academic performance and professional aspiration