Children with Special Disabilities.jpg (Photo : Reuters)
A city located in South China's Guangdong Province announced on Jan. 9 a promise to provide children with disabilities with free education for 15 years.
Starting March 1, children with disabilities residing in Zhongshan City can receive three years of preschool education and 12 years of formal education for free.
Children with disabilities can study until they graduate from high school. Eight city departments, including that of education, sports and development, worked together in establishing this program.
Under this program, expenses associated with educating children with disabilities should not exceed 10 times the budget allocated to general students. On the other hand, those with hearing, sight, and communication impairments should be given education not costing beyond eight times the budget allotted for general students.
The facilities for educating children with disabilities would be handled by a special educational foundation. The government also called for schools across the city to accept a higher number of students with disabilities.
China's inadequate educational opportunities for children with disabilities have been criticized before. Back in 2013, statistics showed that more than a quarter of children with disabilities were not receiving education at all, even at the most basic level.
Among the 83 million of people with disabilities in China, it is said that 40 percent of them have not earned an education and are illiterate. The problems cited were the difficulties linked to enrolling as well as the misconceptions about children with disabilities. Some children were not being accepted by the schools for fear of them "affecting other kids."
According to law, Chinese children over six are all guaranteed the right of education. The new program in Zhongshan City can therefore be lauded as a good step toward the adherence to the said law.
