Barriers to Inclusive Education in Chinese Primary Schools

Culture, Policy, and Practice

Qinyi Tan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000399325
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Elementary Education

In response to the growing international interest in inclusive education, this book examines its practices and issues in the Chinese context through case studies of two regular primary schools in mainland China where children with special needs are admitted.

The main concerns of this book not only involve the inclusion of children with disabilities, but also those with special educational needs but without physical and sensory difficulties, such as children from socially and economically disadvantaged groups, children from diverse cultural and linguistic groups, and children alienated in classrooms. This book discusses these issues and challenges against the background of the existing educational system and policy, and identifies the barriers to their inclusion in current school education, such as lack of in-service training for teachers, limited involvement of local communities, big class size, and corporal punishment, etc.

Academics and postgraduate students in the field of inclusive education, social education, and Chinese studies will find this book useful, as well as policy makers, school teachers, and administrators.

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

According to official Chinese sources, an estimated 83 million people in 2006 in China – 6.3% of the population have disabilities,¹ and there were 85 million persons with disabilities in 2012.² The data is far below the global disability prevalence rate estimated by the WHO and World Bank in 2011. In the report, around 15% of the world’s population, or estimated 1 billion people, live with disabilities.³ Probably 6.3% of the population has disabilities is underestimate in China, because some persons with disabilities do not registered in the government, then they do not hold a certificate which is a basis to testify the eligibility to receive some public services is issued by China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF). According to Masayuki Kobayashi and Soya Mori (2009), 16% of sample persons with disabilities have not received the certificate throughout China, so this group of persons with disabilities has not been calculated by the government.

It is believed that the group of persons with disabilities was the world’s largest minority (UN, 2006). China has the largest population in the world – with over 1.3 billion people it accounts for one-fifth of the world’s population. So, the largest group of persons with disabilities is in China, including people with physical disabilities, with a population of 25 million, followed by those with hearing, multiple, visual, mental, intellectual, and speech disabilities.⁴ And 43.29% of people with disabilities are illiterate.⁵

The steps for achieving education for all (EFA) has been more than 65 years, as stated in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations (UN, 1948) affirmed inclusion in education as a human right. The Compulsory Education law of China (National People’s Congress, 1986) aims to develop basic EFA school-age children, including six years of primary and three years of junior secondary education. Since 1980s, a policy of learning in regular classroom (LRC) has been conducted to enrol a large number of students with disabilities into regular schools, in response to the international trend and domestic goal of universalizing compulsory education. Then, numerous laws and regulations were published. UN CRPD is an important legal document of human rights protection system in the international perspective had a profound impact on China. Since June 26, 2008, the National People’s Congress formally approved China’s accession “Convention on the Rights of persons with disabilities.” It is to enforce “Convention on the Rights of persons with disabilities” a concrete manifestation. By ratifying the CRPD (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) in 2008, the Chinese government made a commitment to “the goal of full inclusion.” And the government encouraged students to attend regular schools. However, it continued to develop a parallel system of special schools and regular schools in China, rather than investing in inclusive education in the regular school system. In 2012, according to the statistics of Ministry of Education, there were 1,853 special schools enrolling 378,800 children with disabilities, and regular schools provided education to another 199,800 children with disabilities (including via special classes in regular schools).⁶

Inclusive education is seen as a good investment. Governments need to develop national plans to extend inclusive education for children with disabilities, including detailed targets, strategies for improving access and learning achievement, and comprehensive plans for providing financing and training teachers. The starting point for such a plan is a credible needs assessment based on a national survey of the prevalence of disability (UNESCO, 2010). In international perspective, in order to develop EFA, including the students with special educational needs (SEN), a series of conventions or treaties were signed. The most important documents are the Salamanca Statement and CRPD. The Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994) calls on all governments to give the highest priority to inclusive education. And the CRPD calls on all States Parties to ensure an inclusive education system at all levels (UN, 2006a). As one of states parties, China is developing inclusive education at the national level. More specifically, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities considered the initial report of China, including Hong Kong, China, and Macao, China, at its 77th and 78th meetings, held on September 18 and 19, 2012, and adopted the concluding observations at its 91st meeting, held on September 27​​​​​​, ​2012. In the meetings, Wang Naikun, who is the secretary general of State Council Working Committee on Disabilities, pointed out that China has continuously improved the level of education for persons with disabilities. An education system for persons with disabilities spanning from pre-school to tertiary education is being established. The enrolments rate for compulsory education of children with disabilities has risen significantly. Nearly 60% of students with disabilities study in regular schools and the conditions of special education schools have been improved. However, the committee members from Hong Kong believed that the government did not paid much attention to the rights of persons with disabilities, and it just treated the rights of persons with disabilities as welfare instead.

1.1.1 Motivations, research questions, and objectives

A World Bank paper notes that inclusive education reduces welfare costs and future dependence. And it reduces current dependence and frees other household members from caring responsibilities, allowing them to increase employment or other productive activities. It also increases children’s potential productivity and wealth creation, which will in turn help to alleviate poverty (UNICEF, 2012). China is the country with the greatest persons with disabilities of about 85 million, beyond the national population of many countries, however, only a few studies have focused on inclusive education of regular schools in China (Liu, 2009; Qing, Liu, Yang & He, 2005). Few writings have used methodological triangulation to examine the barriers in the process of inclusive education. However, most of the developed countries in Europe have praciticed inclusive education for a long time. It is role model for China in the field. In 1994, the Salamanca Statement was framed by a rights-based perspective on education. It asserted from the outset its commitment to:

Reaffirming the right to education of every individual, as enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and renewing the pledge made by the world community at the 1990 World Conference on Education for All to ensure that right for all regardless of individual differences.

(UNESCO, 1994, Preface)

As well, the author has witnessed the history of inclusive education in mainland China.⁷ And the researcher got the chance to study in Spain as a Ph.D. student who is sponsored by China Scholarship Council (CSC), and CSC gave the financial support to study at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in order to examine the barriers to inclusion for students with SEN in Chinese regular primary schools. In this case, this study analyses the current state of inclusive education in China, and then it gives useful recommendations to the schools in order to improve the quality of inclusive education.

The present study aims to investigate barriers to inclusion of the case primary schools in the process of inclusive education in mainland China. In an attempt to understand the more details about inclusive education of the schools, the research question is posed to guide the study:

What are the barriers to inclusive education in the regular primary schools?

To examine the barriers to inclusive education of the primary schools, sub-questions could be listed as follows.

What are the barriers to inclusive education regarding to attitudes and values?

What are the barriers to inclusive education regarding to classroom management and class size?

What are the barriers to inclusive education regarding to school leadership and collaboration?

What are the barriers to inclusive education regarding to teacher education?

What are the barriers to inclusive education regarding to physical environment?

Through addressing the research questions, this case study was to examine the barriers to inclusive education in the regular schools. More specifically the findings from this study would have practical significance to improve the quality of inclusive education in the dimensions of culture, policy and practice by different instruments (interviews, questionnaries, focus group, and so on) and different participants (teachers, students, parents, and school principle).

The main objective is to promote educational diversity and equity to meet SEN for all in the process of inclusive education in the regular primary schools of Chinese socio-cultural context.

The specific objectives aim to understand ...