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Education And Development Of Special Education

Decent Essays

There are some significant laws that influenced the development of special education in China. Special education schools emerged in the late 19th century with special schools that served those who were blind and deaf (Deng, Poon-McBrayer & Farnsworth, 2001, p. 289-290). “Education for individual with mental retardation or other disabilities was nonexistent” (Deng et al., p. 289-290). The foundation of the People’s Republic of China established in 1949 is often considered the actual start of special education services in China. From the 1950’s to 1980’s, the Chinese modeled their special schools after the Soviet Union’s (Deng et al., p. 290). In 1959, “the first school for students with mental retardation was established” however, the school was forced to close four years later and did not resume until 1979 (Deng et al., p. 290).
Education reform began in the 1980’s. At this time, the Chinese system was beginning to be influenced by Western special education systems (Deng et al., p. 291). In 1982, China revised their constitution. This revision established their first mandate for the educating people with disabilities (Kritzer, 2012, p. 52). In 1986, they adopted the Compulsory Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, which increased the mandate to include that all children are entitled to nine years of free education (Kritzer, 2012, p. 52).
In 1990, the Law on the Protection of the Disabled Persons was passed. This law states that the families and

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