At present, the international community pays more and more attention to the education of disadvantaged children (including disabled children), and the following concepts have increasingly become the mainstream values of the international community: education is not the privilege of a few people, but the basic human rights of all people; Let all people, including disabled children, have equal access to quality education suitable for their unique needs; Segregation means inequality (inclusive education) "Zero rejection" means "no rejection" (all disabled children should receive free and appropriate compulsory education) [1. The above ideas put forward new requirements and challenges for the development of special education in China. Therefore, although the development of special education in China has made remarkable achievements, the development of special education lags behind obviously, whether compared with developed countries of special education abroad or other educational undertakings at all levels in China. At present, the overall development level of special education in China is not high, and the education level of disabled people is low; Uneven development between urban and rural areas and regions, especially in rural areas; Insufficient investment, the support ability needs to be strengthened; Ideas, contents and methods are not suitable for the requirements of the times and other problems and challenges. Facing the growing economy of China, the rising international status of China, the new requirements and challenges brought by the new concept of international special education, and the increasingly diversified special education needs of disabled children in China, it is necessary to complete six major changes or transformations for the real and healthy development of special education in China.
1. Transition from special education policies and regulations to special education regulations.
After the reform and opening up, the legal system construction of special education in China has developed rapidly, and a series of laws, regulations and documents related to special education have been promulgated one after another. The Constitution of People's Republic of China (PRC) promulgated by 1982 stipulates that "the state and the government help to arrange the work, life and education of blind, deaf, dumb and other disabled citizens", and establishes the government responsibility of the state and the government for the education of the disabled. In order to ensure the implementation of the constitutional provisions, the state has successively formulated the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Disabled Persons (promulgated by 1990 and revised in April 2008) and the Regulations on Education for Disabled Persons, which once again declared that "the state guarantees the right of disabled persons to receive education". Undoubtedly, China's current special education policies and regulations have played an important role in promoting the development of special education. However, compared with China's economic development and China's international status, compared with the development requirements of special education, compared with the educational needs of the disabled, compared with developed countries, there are still obvious shortcomings and huge room for improvement and improvement. Show in:
(1) The existing legal provisions lack mandatory provisions. The existing special education laws and regulations have no clear legal responsibility, no legal basis for sanctions against offenders, and no relevant relief measures and ways for the infringed [3]. Because the legal provisions are not specific, the relevant departments blame each other, and it is difficult for law enforcement departments to operate.
(2) The legislation of special education is not perfect. The existing laws and regulations are not high in level and authority, and lack the core special education law. Some developed countries and neighboring countries and regions have formulated special special education laws. For example, the Belgian Law on Special Education, the American Law on Education for All Disabled Children, the Korean Law on Promotion of Special Education, and China Taiwan Province Province also promulgated the Law on Special Education in 1984.
(3) The existing legal provisions are not operable. At present, the existing laws and regulations on special education have many principled expressions, too many swearing words, and some regulations are vague and difficult to operate [2]. For example, Article 24 of the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons, revised in April 2008, stipulates that "social forces are encouraged to run schools and donate money for education". It is difficult for such a clause to play a big role.
If the above shortcomings and problems are not solved, it will be difficult for China's special education to achieve greater development. Therefore, firstly, we should constantly improve and modify inappropriate clauses in existing laws and regulations, remove vague oath words, increase mandatory clauses, formulate detailed rules for judicial interpretation of the law on the protection of the disabled, reduce the responsibility of relevant departments to shirk each other, and enhance the ability of administration according to law and strict law enforcement. Secondly, the gradual completion of the legislation of special education law in China can learn from the experience of some developed countries and neighboring countries and regions in China, and solve the dilemma of low-level special education laws and regulations, weak authority and lack of core laws. Only in this way can special education in China truly embark on the track of administering education according to law.
2. The transformation from the education of three types of disabled children to the education of children with special needs.
Special education in China mainly includes two forms of education, one is special school education, and the other is that disabled children study in ordinary schools. As far as the categories of special schools are concerned, there are mainly three types of special education schools: blind, deaf and mentally retarded, which mainly recruit disabled children who can take care of themselves and have certain learning ability. As far as ordinary schools are concerned, at present, they can only recruit some disabled children who have certain learning ability and can adapt to ordinary schools, mainly mild ones. In other words, although all disabled children have the right to receive compulsory education, they may not all have the opportunity. Therefore, strictly speaking, China can only provide educational services for some disabled children at present. Due to historical reasons, China's past special education was mainly aimed at blind, deaf and mentally retarded children, and only special education schools for blind, deaf and mentally retarded children were established in China. Blind, deaf and mentally retarded children can attend special schools, and some children with mild disabilities can attend ordinary schools. What about other types of disabled children, such as autistic children, children with cerebral palsy, children with learning disabilities, children with physical disabilities and children with multiple disabilities? What kind of school should children go to? Children are not ordinary children. They can't get an education in ordinary schools. The school has no extra funds and teachers to educate them. Even if the principal can't help the parents' entreaties out of sympathy and pity, he can only pass on all the responsibilities and burdens to the class teacher because he can't get the support of special education resources. It is conceivable that class teachers and disabled children will face such a dilemma. One of the reasons is that although the relevant special education policies and regulations have pointed out that compulsory education should be provided for these disabled children in recent years, the responsibilities are not clear, and most of them stay in the documents.
With the development of society, many international organizations and countries with developed special education have extended the concept of disabled children to the concept of children with special needs, and provided appropriate education for all children with special needs. Children with special needs include not only children with visual, auditory, intellectual and physical disabilities, but also special children, children with autism, children with cerebral palsy and children with learning difficulties. There are 65,438+04 statutory disability categories for children with special needs in the United States, 9 statutory disability categories in neighboring Japan, 8 statutory disability categories in South Korea and 65,438+02 statutory physical and mental disability categories in Taiwan Province Province of China. Therefore, special education in China needs to expand the concept of children with disabilities, formulate policies to require special education schools to recruit other types of children with disabilities, including children with multiple disabilities, and solve the plight of some children with special needs (autistic children, children with cerebral palsy, children with learning difficulties, children with multiple disabilities, etc.). ) can't accept compulsory education. If the special education department is established in the Ministry of Education, all provinces can set up special special education management institutions, which will be more conducive to the overall planning and management of special education.
3. The transition from special school education to integrated education.
(1) The traditional form of special education in China is to put three types of disabled students who are identified as blind, deaf and mentally retarded in special schools specially set up for them. In order to solve the problem of nine-year compulsory education for disabled children, China began to try to arrange disabled children to receive education in ordinary schools, that is, disabled children study in the same class. In recent ten years, the number of children with disabilities attending regular classes in China has been increasing. The proportion of disabled children in regular schools and special education classes in the total number of disabled students in schools has been stable at more than 60%, with 200 1 reaching 60%? .86%[4]。 It can be said that since the Ninth Five-Year Plan, nearly 60% of disabled students have received compulsory education in ordinary schools. However, it is puzzling that our country does not pay as much attention to the disabled children who study in regular classes as special school education, which is manifested in the imperfect policies and regulations for studying in regular classes. The existing laws, regulations and policies on special education in China only emphasize that ordinary schools should accept school-age disabled children and adolescents with learning ability to study in regular classes, and all emphasize the full implementation of regular classes. However, there are few references to how ordinary schools that accept disabled children allocate funds, manage disabled children and train teachers to study in regular classes. Even though 1994, a special administrative regulation on regular schooling for children with disabilities, promulgated by the Ministry of Education, mentioned that "educational administrative departments at all levels should gradually increase the funding for regular schooling for children with disabilities", we can imagine how binding the regulations promulgated by the Ministry of Education are on people's governments at all levels.
(2) The management of regular classes is not in place. The management of children with disabilities attending regular classes is completely different from that of special schools. A province has more than a dozen special schools and nearly a hundred. Disabled children are relatively concentrated and easy to manage, while there are many schools in the same class, but each school has only a few or a dozen disabled children, which is relatively scattered and difficult to manage. At present, the Ministry of Education has only set up a special education department in the basic education department, which is responsible for the management function of special education in the basic education stage. Correspondingly, there is only one basic education department (branch) in the provincial and municipal education administrative departments, and there are few full-time special education cadres in the education administrative departments below the county level. Under this special educational management system, there is no ability and energy to manage the work of disabled children studying in regular classes. Although there are 1 full-time or part-time special education researchers in the teaching and research departments of some provincial/municipal education administrative departments, they are still a drop in the bucket. Therefore, in many places, the work of studying in regular classes is rarely managed. Moreover, according to the category of administration, the special education department is only responsible for the education administration of three types of special schools (blind, deaf and mentally retarded), and the compulsory education department of the basic education department is responsible for the compulsory education administration of ordinary schools. If ordinary schools refuse to accept disabled children such as autistic children, children with cerebral palsy, children with learning disabilities and children with physical disabilities, it will be difficult for special education departments to manage.
Six major changes in the development of special education in China
(4) Pre-service and post-service training of teachers in regular classes lags behind. Judging from the investigation results of the present situation of regular classes, the quality of teachers studying in regular classes is worrying. In 2007, the Department of Special Education of the Ministry of Education organized an expert group to investigate the situation of teachers studying in regular classes. The results show that only 37.80% teachers in regular classes have received special education and training, while 62.20% teachers in regular classes have not received training [7]. Even after training, the proportion of people who can be trained by special education institutions or sent to the school for training is very small, and most of them are seminars and seminars organized by the school itself. The quality of training can be imagined. The present situation shows that the lag of pre-service and post-service training for teachers studying in regular classes has seriously affected the quality of education in regular classes.
Learning in regular classes and special education classes attached to ordinary schools are still the main body of the development of national special education and the inevitable way to solve the compulsory education of disabled children in China. However, it is urgent for the state to issue effective policies and regulations on how to truly ensure that disabled children who attend regular classes, accounting for more than 60% of the total number of disabled students in school, can enjoy high-quality education. Therefore, it is suggested to draw lessons from the experience of learning in regular classes in some parts of China and formulate national standards for children and adolescents with different types of disabilities "having the ability to receive general education" according to the types of disabilities; Implementing one-year special education courses in normal universities to make up for and improve the plight of teachers who do not understand special education in regular classes; The government provides financial funds: developing foreign special education and implementing education for disabled students. 5. The most basic development needs of regular schools.
4. From paying too much attention to the hardware investment in special education to meeting the needs of disabled children.
The total investment in special education in China increased from 654.38+852 billion yuan in198 to 3010.40 billion yuan, with a net increase of nearly 2.4 billion yuan. The total amount of special items in the budget has also increased from 596 million yuan in 1998 to: billion yuan, with a net increase of more than1900 million yuan [8]. It cannot be said that the state does not attach importance to the investment in special education. The problem is that in recent ten years, with the economic development of China, scholars from all walks of life are stepping up reconstruction, land acquisition and new construction. The special education schools in Daxing District 7 have become the first in the world in terms of both school buildings and hardware. It seems that all it takes is to make special education world-class. Then the quality of special education will change. J As for whether the school building is suitable for blind children or other disabled students, whether there are enough disabled children in S school (whether they are willing to enroll students, and whether the modern equipment they buy every two years can be used effectively (some are rarely used or never used, and 1 as window equipment is put in a secondary position). On the one hand, it is modern and luxurious, equipped with first-class equipment in the field of special education, but on the other hand, the school's office funds seem to be in short supply, and even some simple teaching AIDS for disabled children have no financial support, let alone sending special education teachers out to participate in training.
The state and local governments have invested funds to establish special schools, which has played a very important role in promoting the development of special education. Without a certain number of special education schools with good conditions, high-quality education for disabled children is impossible, but the question is whether all special education schools in urban areas need to be expanded or built, and what specifications of special education schools need to be built? Blind children in our special school are still writing their daily homework with blind plates and pens eliminated by blind children in developed countries. Why can't we save some money from building luxury buildings and provide blind students with labor-saving and quick learning tools such as Braille typewriters or computers to improve their learning efficiency?
If we don't change our investment in special education, that is, how much will it cost to go to Gai Lou or buy equipment? It seems that special education only has hardware such as buildings and equipment, so the quality of special education will never be improved and the educational needs of disabled children will never be met. For cities and developed areas, the construction of special schools has been basically completed, and it is necessary to gradually complete the transformation to the quality and efficiency of education. Establish a management and quality monitoring system for disabled children in special education schools so that every disabled child can learn something.
5. The transformation from special education in developed urban areas to the construction of regional special education schools.
Special education in China is a pattern of education for disabled children and adolescents, with a certain number of special education schools as the backbone and a large number of special classes and ordinary classes as the main body. Therefore, special education schools play a very important role in the education of disabled children. Although the number of special education schools increased from 65438+446[9] in 0988 to 1640[ 10] in 2008, the distribution of special education schools in 2007, for example, was very uneven, with great differences between the east, the middle and the west. There are hundreds of special education schools in Shandong, Hebei, Henan and Jiangsu provinces, but the number of special education schools in western provinces is relatively small, especially in Qinghai, Xinjiang, Ningxia and Tibet provinces (autonomous regions), and the number of special education schools is insufficient 10. On the one hand, the special school buildings in developed cities are more and more luxurious and the equipment is more and more advanced. On the other hand, some areas with hundreds of thousands of people don't even have a special education school. Even if disabled children can attend ordinary schools, they are mostly concentrated in cities (see 1. At present, all the special schools in our country study in regular classes, but there are few special teachers who know special education in the whole region. It is hard to imagine that the education of disabled children in this area can develop healthily and well. The National Plan for the Construction of Special Education Schools in the Central and Western Regions during the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2008-20 10) points out that in 2006, there were 326 prefecture-level cities (prefectures, leagues) except Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Tibet. There are 934 counties (cities and banners) with a population of over 300,000 (excluding municipal districts), 1.246. At present, there are still 493 counties without special education schools, including 405 in the central and western regions, accounting for 82% of the total number of counties with a population of more than 300 thousand. It can be seen that the construction of special schools in the central and western regions is still a very important project for the development of special education in China in the future. Completing the transformation of the construction of special education schools in developed areas to underdeveloped areas can greatly promote the scale and quality of education for disabled children in the central and western regions.
6. The transformation from the training of professional teachers in special colleges to the establishment of special education majors in ordinary colleges and universities.
According to the statistics of teachers' special education training in special education schools in 2007 by the Ministry of Education, 1 12, among the 34,990 teachers in special education schools, only18,976 teachers have received special education training, accounting for only 54%. In other words, 46% of the teachers currently working in special schools have never received any special education knowledge and skills training. One of the most important reasons is that there are too few universities/colleges that can train special education majors. A few normal universities in China have set up special education departments/departments, which can train teachers for blind, deaf and mentally retarded special education schools, but it is difficult to meet the needs of teachers in special education schools. If we just stay on the basis of building more special education colleges, it will be difficult to solve the problem of teachers in special education schools in a short time, especially at present, the state will support counties (cities, districts) with a population of more than 300 thousand in the central and western regions or counties with relatively more disabled children and adolescents, and there are no special education schools, so more special education teachers are needed to build a special education school independently.
According to the national eleventh five-year plan, about 190 independent comprehensive or single special education schools will be built in the central and western regions, that is, regardless of the retirement of existing special education schools and existing special education teachers, it is difficult to build at least tens of thousands of special education teachers in the central and western regions in the future. Therefore, we can learn from the idea of solving special education teachers in the United States, support ordinary colleges or universities to set up compulsory courses for special education majors, and encourage ordinary universities to obtain the qualification certification of special education teachers after completing certain credits and engage in special education teaching. According to China's national conditions, it is suggested that compulsory courses of special education should be set up in normal universities in the east, middle and west in a planned way, so that more students in normal universities can understand the concept of special education and master the basic theoretical knowledge of special education. Some qualified comprehensive universities can add elective courses for special education majors on the basis of pilot projects. In addition, we can study and demonstrate the implementation of the special education teacher qualification certification system in China, and implement the "teacher qualification certificate+special education professional qualification certificate" dual-certificate qualification system to encourage teachers who are willing to engage in the education of disabled children to become special education teachers.