Project aids disabled rural kids in accessing education

Great achievement

Ninety-five percent of registered disabled children today have access to nine years of compulsory education, hitting the target the central government set for the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), according to the Blue Book of the Cause for Persons with Disabilities released last week.

The number was only 72.1 percent in 2012, and just over 60 percent in 2008, when China ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, according to central government data.

By the end of 2019, China had about 2,200 schools for students with special needs. Students enrolled at such institutions increased by 80 percent from 2015, reaching about 800,000.

China's National Disability Day, celebrated annually on the third Sunday of May, started in 1991, a few months after the Standing Committee of the 7th National People's Congress, the top legislature, passed the Protection of Disabled Persons Law.

The decades that followed have seen huge progress in disabled people's welfare, ranging from literacy, their financial standing and access to facilities and buildings.

The blue book, published by the Social Sciences Academic Press, said the per capita disposable income of families with disabled members had increased more than 6.5 percent annually over the past five years.

More than 90 percent of disabled people are covered by basic old-age insurance, China's pension fund system, and more than 95 percent by basic health insurance. Access to rehabilitation services and equipment is now available to more than 80 percent of disabled people.