China designates 61 areas as pilot zones for special education reform

Sixty-one cities, counties, and districts across China, including Haidian and Xicheng districts of Beijing, have recently been designated as national pilot areas for special education reform by the Ministry of Education in a bid to enhance the quality and inclusiveness of special education.

The construction period for such pilot areas is generally three years, during which a coherent special education system that connects all education stages, from preschool to high school and above, is to be established, according to the ministry.

More efforts should be made to effectively increase the access of special education to students with disabilities. Meanwhile, a system where free education from kindergarten to high school is provided to all students with disabilities will be explored, the ministry said.

The pilot areas should collaborate with universities and research institutions to conduct educational research and pilot work for children with special needs such as autism, disabilities, and learning disabilities, with a focus on exploring the construction of special education schools and designating assistant teachers for children with autism.

In addition, it's important to explore effective ways for practicing inclusive education, which means educating students with disabilities alongside their peers without disabilities, and improving the quality management of home-based education services.

In 2023, the total number of students receiving special education was 912,000, an increase of 8,720 year-on-year, said Guo Peng, director of the ministry's department of development planning.

Of the 912,000 students receiving special education, 37.42 percent attend special education schools, and 62.58 percent attend regular and other schools. There were a total of 2,345 special education schools nationwide in 2023, a growth of 1.34 percent compared with the previous year, he added.

The ministry also stressed the need to enhance the building of the teacher workforce for special education and called for increased allowances for the teachers.

Li Tingzhou, deputy researcher at the National Institutes of Educational Policy Research of East China Normal University in Shanghai, said that teachers are key to the success of special education.

"Compared to their counterparts, students with special needs rely more on personalized education and emotional support from teachers, therefore posing higher requirements on teachers," he wrote in an article in 2023.

The ministry also emphasized the digital transformation of special education by leveraging new technologies such as cloud computing, big data, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence to develop teaching and learning resources customized to students with special needs.