Integrated education for disabled children needs improvement

Illustrative image (Source: baoquangngai.vn)

More and more disabled children have been enrolled in school thanks to improved social awareness and the formation of State management mechanism in the field, but quality of education for these children still needs improvement, education experts said.

At an international workshop held in Hanoi on August 24 on integrated education for disabled children, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Minh, Head of the Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE), said there are big gaps among regions in the country in terms of the availability of education services for disabled children. Most schools offering integrated education for disabled children are in big cities, while three quarters of the disabled live in the rural areas. In addition, the majority of disabled children receiving integrated education at nursery or primary schools and only a small number study at schools at higher levels.

He also noted that teacher training universities fail to pay due attention to the subject of integrated education for disabled children, which is not included in the curricula of many schools.

Sharing Minh’s opinion, Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hai, Head of the HNUE’s Special Education, pointed out that the country has done a good job in bringing disabled children to school but has not paid enough attention to quality of teaching and learning.

Participants at the conference recommended some solutions to improve the situation such as opening training courses on education for disabled children at teacher training universities and colleges, improve provincial-level centres for assisting and developing disabled children education, and increase accessibility and education quality via information technology.

Nguyen Duc Huu, deputy head of the department of education for disabled and disadvantaged children under the Ministry of Training and Education, said the model of integrated education support centre in Vietnam is in line with the general trend in the world.

The operation of such centres in the world and at some Vietnamese localities has provided useful experience for managers to build the model in each locality, said Huu.

The national policy on developing these centres needs to be more specific for their more effective operation in reality, he added.-VNA