Discrimination, low awareness, lack of facilities and a shortage of funds are among major problems facing efforts to provide a good education to people with disabilities . . .

Photo: SGGP

Nguyen Thi Van Anh, deputy head of the department’s Standing Board for Education of People With Disabilities, said that the city has 28 special schools in 18 districts.

A new one will be built this year in District 6 and another one will open in Binh Tan District next year, she said.

Pham Tuan, principal of Special School in District 10, said that the district has more than 200 school-age children with disabilities, but it did not have enough schools to give all of them a good education.

He blamed a shortage of funds for the delay in establishing new special schools in districts that were yet to have one, as well as in procuring equipment for existing institutions.

Even, the city has not yet had allowances for teachers who teach students with disabilities at normal schools, she added.

The city was getting most of the funds for educating the disabled from local and foreign charities as well as non-governmental organisations including the Viet Nam Women’s Association, Australian Government and the Loreto Viet Nam – Australia Programme.

The meeting also heard that the number of teachers focusing on teaching students with disabilities at normal schools was insufficient. To make matters worse, these teachers were also not skilled enough, speakers said.

Do Thi Ngan, a teacher at the 19-5 Kindergarten, said most schools accepting children with disabilities are faced with many difficulties because of high turnover among teaching staff as well as the lack of teachers with specialised training.

The training courses currently available are also not up to standard, she said.

Tuan added that the training of teachers specialised in teaching students with disabilities does not receive the attention it should.

Tran Thi My Hanh, a teacher at the Nguyen Dinh Chieu Special School, said the number of teachers in her school was not enough to send to other schools where students with disabilities were studying.

Hanh also said many parents with disabled children did not have the awareness and skills to create conditions to help their children develop and integrate into mainstream society as soon as possible.

Some parents who have normal children do not even have sympathy for disabled children, preventing the latter from having the opportunity to interact with and learn alongside the former, she said.

Integrated education was important in sensitising normal children to the needs of their disabled peers and in creating an atmosphere where the latter can thrive, she added.

Additionally, authorities in some districts were not paying enough attention to the need for special schools in their area and residents did not know where to send their disabled children to study, the meeting heard.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News