Wang Yuanyuan

cheekywang@hotmail.com

MOST special education institutions and recovery centers as well as schools hope to receive more support from the government.

“There is a growing number of autistic children in the city. It is very difficult for us to meet the increasing demand,” said Wang Jintao, director of the autism recovery education center of Kangning Hospital in Luohu District.

More than 100 autistic children are trained at the center, making it the biggest public institution of its kind in the city. “Even so, there is a six-month waiting list to train at the center, so many parents give up,” Wang said.

Yuanping Special Education School also suffers serious shortages of space, teachers and resources.

“It is difficult for the school, built 20 years ago, to expand due to much red tape and lack of financial support,” said Wan, director of the education affairs department of the school.

After Li’s story was reported, many netizens accused Baocheng Primary school of “mistreating autistic children,” but most public schools have similar difficulties.

The Bao’an District Education Bureau is looking at ways to help disabled children integrate at regular schools.

“We hope that in the future, all public schools in the city will be able to accept autistic children,” said Wang Jian, head of the city’s early intervention center for children with special needs.

At present, most autistic recovery and education centers are mainly funded by autistic children’s parents.” Most of these organizations are unlicensed, so it is hard to say how many children they are training,” Wang added.

The city’s education bureau also approves of introducing special classes at normal schools. “Building one or two schools for special education will not be enough to meet demand and it takes years to gather the resources and teachers. Careful research must be done as to how to solve this problem, “ said Cheng Xuecai, director of the basic education department of Bao’an District Education Bureau.