H. Disabilities, Basic Health and Welfare
Issue 18 Education for Children with Disabilities
Important Issues in Amending the SEA
87. The MOE is in the process of amending the SEA in its entirety, and the
NHRC has recognized the Ministry's focus on inclusive education and
reasonable accommodation, but the Ministry has not specified the scope
of obligations to carry out reasonable accommodation, the procedures
to handle disputes, or the means of remedy in the event of violations of
rights. Neither does it treat the denial of reasonable accommodation as
discriminatory and plan to impose any sanctions accordingly.
Furthermore, the MOE only examined the implementation basis of the
current special education support for inclusive education, such as
funding, teacher-student ratio, function and ratio of assistant staff,
transportation arrangement, empowering special education teachers,
and adjustment to teachers' internship programs and examinations.
However, the effectiveness of the implementation of these measures has
not been examined from the perspective of enhancing teachers'
competence and providing guidance in the general education setting.
Equal Participation in Developmental Activities
88. Most of the representatives reflected in the focus groups that children
with disabilities have been excluded from field trips for a long time, and
many schools, through various means, require parents to accompany the
students to participate in the activities, which is in effect treating parents
as caregivers and constitutes discrimination and differential treatment.
It also violates the CRPD's requirement that the Government should
ensure that children with disabilities have the right to participate in
activities on an equal basis with other children, and that an unfriendly
learning environment cannot lead to truly inclusive education. The
MOE stated during government agencies discussions that it had written
to schools at all levels in 2019 to ask them to safeguard students' rights
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