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China adopted the Compulsory Education Policy in 1984. In 1994, the Protection Policy for the Disabled and the Education Regulations for the Disabled were passed through, which legally guaranteed the education opportunity for the visually impaired children.
Under such background, we thought the best way to upgrade the education for the visually impaired was through cooperation with the government. So, we formulated the Golden Key Program. The Program, spanning ten years (1996-2005), aimed at realizing universal admittance for the 20,000 visually impaired children to school in the nine underdeveloped western provinces, namely , Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner-Mongolia.
In 1995, the Golden Key Research Center of Education for the Visually Impaired signed an agreement first with the Guangxi Education Commission to jointly fulfill the program. The Golden Key Research Center of Education for the Visually Impaired will be responsible for the general planning as well as providing professional guidance, raising funds for teacher training, providing study utensils and sponsorship, etc. The Guangxi Education Commission will be responsible for the implementation and the administration.
In 1996, 759 visually impaired children were admitted to school. In 1997, 786 children will be able to go to school. By 1998, the enrollment rate for the visually Impaired children in Guangxi province will be above 96%.
Starting from 1987, we put forward the Golden Key Project and explored the way of integrated education for the visually impaired children in East and Northeast of China. With the affirmation of the government in 1990, the project was started in the whole country and was named "classroom integration".
However, the progress is not very satisfactory. According to statistics of the National Educational Commission, up until 1996, there were about 7,535 visually impaired children in the country, and only 3,378 were admitted to normal schools, which makes up only 45% of the total.
One of the main reasons for this is due to the shortage of professional knowledge. Many government officials and school teachers still regard it as a very difficult thing to have visually impaired children study in the same classroom as the normal children.
As a NGO, we cannot provide the compulsory education as the government organizations do. Therefore, the objective of the Golden Key Program is to help the government and raise the school enrollment as well as to lay a foundation for future study in two years.
The two years will be divided into three stages. In every stage, we draw up clear evaluation standards in the following seven areas:
Basic File
Instructive Teachers
Teaching Environment
Psychic-Rehabilitation
Social Adaptability
Study Ability
Parent Involvement.
There are about 70,000-80,000 visually impaired children aged 7-15 in China, which accounts for 0.006%-0.007% of the total population. It is much lower than the average international level. Besides, most of them are distributed among the impoverished families in the underdeveloped regions, where the level of administration and teaching are both relatively low. We hope through the three-stage evaluation, the administrators, schools masters, teachers, as well as the students themselves and their parents will get a much clearer and better understanding.
The preliminary evaluation will be done two months after the enrollment. In this stage, related personnel are requested to have a basic understanding of the special education for the visually impaired.
The second evaluation will be carried out one year after enrollment. In this stage, related personnel begin to get familiar with education for the visually impaired.
The final evaluation will be done two years after enrollment. Related personnel are requested to be able to master the special educaiton for the visually impaired.
In November 1996, the Guangxi Education Commission did the preliminary evaluation on the 759 enrolled students. In Dec. 1996, the Golden Key Research Center of Education for the Visually Impaired and the Guangxi Education Commission jointly evaluated some schools. The results show that the evaluation standards and scales generally included the main areas of the classroom integration of the visually impaired pupils. It is brief, practical and set a clear objective for people who are not familiar with the special education. It has very good guidance and pushes the work forward.
In May 1997, well-known international
specialists are invited to Guangxi for an on the spot investigation. It
is concluded after the investigation that the Golden Key Program carried
out in Guangxi is satisfactory, which proves that the guiding ideology
of the Golden Key Program is correct and suits the practical situation
of the underdeveloped regions.
** The chart which accompanies this paper is not available at this time. If you would like a copy of the chart, please contact Mr. Xu Bailun at the following address. Thank you.
Mr. Xu Bailun
33-1-103 Enjili of Haidian
District
Beijing 100036
CHINA