City accomodates disabled students

Students attend a computing class at a vocational training centre for disabled and homeless children in HCM City. The city now has 583 schools that admit disabled students. — VNA/VNS Photo Trang Duong

HCM CITY — The city plans to build more schools for students with disabilities during the 2011-12 school year if funds are available, according to the Department of Education and Training.

At a workshop held yesterday, Nguyen Thi Van Anh, deputy head of the department's Preschool Education Office, which specialises in education for children with disabilities, said the city has 25 schools reserved for these children.

However, there are seven districts without schools for children with disabilities. They are located in districts 4, 7, 9, Binh Tan, Thu Duc, Nha Be, and Hoc Mon.

The city has not been able to build more schools for these children because of a shortage of funds.

For the 2010-11 school year, the city has 583 schools for students that also admit students with disabilities, an increase of 25 schools over last year.

Many of these schools that enrol only students with disabilities are unable to receive more students because their facilities are too small.

In addition, they lack funds to organise other outdoor activities for their students.

In schools where disabled students learned with other students, most teachers had no training in teaching such students, Anh said.

In the training programme of pedagogy universities, students enrolled in primary education faculties are not taught topics on teaching disabled students.

The high number of students in each classroom has also influenced the quality of teaching, she added.

Schools that enrol students with disabilities exclusively still do not have enough teachers, leading to difficulties in teaching these students, Anh said.

In a recent workshop, Do Thi Thuy, a teacher of Hy Vong School for hearing-impaired students, also complained about a shortage of teachers for her school.

The demand to employ more teachers for these schools was high while supply was low, Thuy said.

In the last two years, the number of applicants for the Education for Disabled Children Faculty at the University of Teachers' Training has fallen.

Many graduates of this faculty later quit their teaching jobs because of low salaries and work overload, Thuy added. — VNS