(File photo/Xinhua)

The Ministry of Education and the National Development and Reform Commission have recently released the “Phase II Special Education Upgrading Scheme (2017-2020)” to further improve the country’s special education system and to assure over 95% of Chinese schoolchildren with disabilities will have access to nine-year compulsory education by 2020.

“China currently has 492,000 disabled students, with 270,000 of them enrolled in normal schools, accounting for 55% of the total,” Lu Yugang, director of the Department of Basic Education, told Guangming Daily.

Since the implementation of the “Phase I Special Education Upgrading Scheme (2014-2016)” in 2014, the national school enrollment rate of minors with visual, aural, or intellectual impairment reached 90% by the end of 2016; and the number of special education schools nationwide reached 2,080, up 7.6% compared to 2013. Each disabled student enjoying compulsory education is given a 6,000 yuan (about $892) government grant.

According to Li Dongmei, deputy director of China Disabled Persons’ Federation’s Department of Education and Employment, 81% of the disabled minors receiving compulsory education system are from rural areas. Three quarters of them suffer from severe disabilities that prevent them from going to a normal school.

To address the issue, the “Phase II Scheme” promotes “sending education to families, communities, and welfare centers.” Disabled minors who receive door-to-door education will also be registered in the national compulsory education system.