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PART Recent Trends and Developments in Government Policies in Education, Science and Culture

In order to heir mentally and physically handicapped children develop their own potentials to the fullest and enable them to live independently within society, special education schools and classes for the blind, the deaf or the otherwise handicapped have been established. Classes for special education are intentionally small to provide students with careful instruction relevant to the types and degrees of their handicaps, as well as to their developmental stages.

In recent years educational authorities have become required: to cope with an increase in the ratio of children with serious and multiple handicaps; to enrich educational programs for children with less serious handicaps; to increase early childhood education programs so as to enable handicapped children to overcome many of the restrictions of their handicaps as early as possible; to enrich vocational education programs and career guidance services which are aimed at contributing to the social independence of handicapped children; and to expand the access of handicapped children to upper secondary education.

To meet these requirements, the Ministry has been striving: to provide better supervision and guidance to handicapped children and their parents so that they may attend appropriate schools relevant to the types and degrees of their disabilities; to promote the public's understanding and recognition toward mentally and physically handicapped children; to improve the Course of Study for Special Education Schools; to improve the quality of teachers and other personnel at special education schools; to facilitate the independent vocational life of handicapped children; and to further promote the establishment of upper secondary departments at special education schools. The Ministry also began in 1990 to conduct studies aimed at mainstreaming children with less serious handicaps i.e., enrolling them in regular elementary and lower secondary classes and giving them training in special education classes at regular intervals. The Ministry expects the results of this study by March 1992. The Ministry also launched a new study on communication devices for handicapped children. The National Institute for Special Education has also launched studies on the learning of children with specific learning disabilities

Further, in order to help alleviate the financial burdens of parents of handicapped children, the Government offers them a subsidy for special school attendance.