Thailand needs more specialised school, staff for the handicapped
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THE RATE of employment among physically challenged people in Thailand has risen to 26 per cent, which is why special schools need to have more specialised staff, Channarong Pornrungroj, director of the National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (
Citing the “good to excellent” results of the External Quality Assurance (EQA) evaluation at such special schools over the past three years, Channarong said that better access to education helped open the door for handicapped people in vocational and undergraduate levels.
This, in turn, has resulted in more handicapped people getting jobs, thus boosting self-reliance, he said.
The Department of Employment’s Employment Service System Development Division’s 2014 report also showed that the rate of employment for the physically challenged has risen to 26 per cent or 24,780, compared to 19,167 people hired in the previous year, he said.
However, the EQA evaluation found that these special schools still need improvement and regular support from the government, especially when it comes to specialised manpower in fields such as psychology and physical therapy, he said.
The lack of support for serious research in fields that will help develop these special schools has caused a shortage of related innovations, he said. Boosting teachers’ skills to match the students’ type and degree of disability is also necessary, he pointed out.
Up to 2.9 per cent or 1.9 million people in Thailand have some sort of physical challenge. A nationwide survey on handicapped people aged between two and 30 showed that 18.3 per cent were studying, while the remainder – some 230,000 young people – did not go to school.
Channarong said the 43 special boarding schools, providing education from nursery to higher secondary levels, in 35 provinces could only support up to 15,000 students.
