The Ministry of Education announced its 5-year plan for special education which will take place starting this year until 2017. Its main focus is on expanding the number of textbooks according to different types of disabilities, providing education on disabilities twice a year and improving employment rate of people with disabilities to 40%. Problem is that the plan provided ambiguous ways to accomplish these goals; parts related to increasing the number of education classes and teachers, merely reads as “During the 5 years, we will increase the numbers according to yearly needs.”
When the Ministry was faced with doubtful remarks about lacking detailed plans, the ministry responded that because people who need special education has been increasing each year, they want to be flexible about their plans. The real reason however lies with the current special education system with inadequate resources. Currently, public schools for special education need to employ 7000 more special education teachers to meet public needs. Since the government does not place enough budget for special education, the schools expand short-term teaching positions that do not guarantee these teachers job security.
Also, students with disabilities are the real victims because of this inconsiderate policy regarding special education. About 13.5% (3221 students) have to commute for over one hour to get to school and about 25% of special education classes exceeds the number of students stated in legal documents. One parent of a deaf student said “When students without disabilities generally want their education level to improve, our children just wish to go to school that is close by.” Right to education for people with disabilities should start with a more fundamental approach by providing more schools and teachers rather than publishing 60 kinds of textbooks.
Sources: http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/08/22/2013082200150.html
photo: http://if-blog.tistory.com/474
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