Just a show: the home-delivery education policy for children with disabilities in China

Abstract

Abstract China has implemented a home-delivery education policy to protect the equal education rights of children with disabilities. The policy is designed to give them more choices about how they are educated. However, we found that the teaching team transformed this well-intentioned policy into a false performance through the following three processes: the replacement of policy goals, propaganda of the idea ‘Home-Delivery Education for disabled children is useless,’ and finally, collusion. Throughout each of these processes, many children with disabilities are deprived of their right to an education. POINT OF INTEREST This study found that the teaching team transformed the well-intentioned policy of the home-delivery education into a ‘show’, depriving disabled children’s right to education. This ‘show’ occurs through the following three steps: the replacement of policy goals (building a show stage), propaganda of ‘Home-Delivery Education for disabled children is useless’ (persuading the ‘actors’), and finally, collusion (setting the script). Government departments, schools, and parents should all make their efforts to solve this problem.