As the world celebrated the World Autism Awareness Day on Saturday, April 2, the dire situation of special education in China was put under the spotlight in a report by China Daily.
About 1 percent of the Chinese population has been diagnosed with autism, and schools are hard-pressed to provide specialist teachers, facilities and awareness.
Some kids are lucky, however, such as Ji Yuanqing, the first student with autism enrolled in Dongtieying No. 2 Primary School in Beijing. He is just one of the very few disabled children fortunate enough to study at a mainstream Chinese school.
Ji, who was diagnosed with autism when he was 2, often has troubles with social and oral skills. His parents, Ji Jingxin and Zhang Lijuan, only decided to send him to a regular school two years ago at a singing event, where they realized Ji can imitate other children's movement.
"At that moment, we realized he knew how to imitate, and that if he was given the opportunity to attend a mainstream school he could learn from healthy children," said Ji in an interview with China Daily.
Although a handful of Chinese schools are well-equipped to provide special education, the local government in Beijing has started to roll out programs that will help pupils with autism achieve good education. About 200 schools in the capital opened "resource classrooms" to accommodate the Ministry of Education's new policy on special education facilities.
Dongtieying, where Ji junior is studying, received a 500,000-yuan grant from the government. The school used it to build a resource classroom complete with facilities, and trained a special education teacher.
"We told our teachers that special kids like Ji are a rare treasure, and teaching them will greatly enrich their working experience," said Yan Liping, the school's vice headmaster.
Including children with special needs in regular schools also benefits "normal" children and teachers.
"Such experiences will teach them (non-disabled children) how to live in a diverse world and with people who are different from them," Zhang Xu, an associate professor of special education at Beijing Union University, said.