At the conference to review the 2012-2013 school year and roll out the disability education plan for special schools in the 2013-2014 school year (organised by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training on the morning of 1 October), Ha Thanh Van, Principal of Nguyen Dinh Chieu Special School, said that sex education for children with disabilities needs to be stepped up, as this is necessary work.
Van shared: “My school has translated foreign materials on sex education to teach our pupils. But when I raised the issue that we need to know how to protect the private parts of our bodies, the children thought that the private parts are… in the stomach”.
“That shows that children really need sex education to protect their own bodies and avoid sexual abuse, including the possibility of same-sex sexual abuse, which is happening all over society”, Van said.
Also at the conference this morning, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training and the leaders of special and inclusive schools said that work in educating children in this area faces many difficulties, not only the issue of sex education.
The most typical difficulty is the limited coordination between schools and pupils’ parents, as most of the children’s parents are workers in difficult economic circumstances, and so they leave the care and teaching of their children entirely to the school.
Most schools have no health staff; they lack funding to organise extracurricular activities for pupils, children with disabilities, and inclusion; and they lack playgrounds, specialist rooms…
On the other hand, the sector currently has no regulations on the operation of special schools, so there are difficulties in guiding procedures for opening schools and granting operating licences to organisations and individuals who wish to open private special schools.
Ho Chi Minh City currently has 25 special schools with more than 2,700 children enrolled.
Minh Luan – http://www.drdvietnam.org