Education system enabling greater diversity

More children with disabilities are studying in nonspecialist schools as the country promotes inclusive education, according to the Ministry of Education.

In 2020, the number of students with disabilities who studied at regular schools had risen to 439,000 from 239,000 in 2015, the ministry said. It added that about 50 percent of all students with disabilities studied at such schools.

"Efforts will be made to develop inclusive education properly, and we will strive to ensure that children and teenagers with disabilities enjoy equal rights to education," a ministry guideline noted in September.

It stressed that the ministry will continue to popularize the nine-year compulsory education system for children with disabilities, as well as inclusion at the preschool and post-high school levels.

In addition to ensuring a good education for children with visual, hearing and cognitive impairments, it will focus on the education and care of children with autism.

In 2017, the State Council, China's Cabinet, revised and adopted the Regulations on the Education of Individuals with Disabilities.

It said that the country will promote inclusive education and ensure that more disabled children can attend nonspecialist kindergartens and schools.

In a document released in 2017, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund said every child, including those with disabilities, has the right to education.

"An inclusive education system is one that accommodates all students, whatever their abilities or requirements, and at all levels－preschool, primary, secondary, tertiary, vocational and lifelong learning," said the document, called Understanding Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

It also clarified the concept of inclusion, saying it refers to places that adapt their design and physical structures, teaching methods and curricula, as well as culture, policy and practice so they are accessible to all students without discrimination.

"Placing students with disabilities within mainstream classes without these adaptations does not constitute inclusion," it noted.

"Segregation occurs when students with disabilities are provided with education in separate, specially designed environments and in isolation from students without disabilities."