Center Expels Night School for the Disabled

By Park Si-soo, Han Sang-hee

On an especially icy winter's night with the mercury hovering below minus 10 degree Celsius, a large shabby tent is set up in a Seoul public park as a temporary classroom.

Despite the cold, however, the inside of the tent is heated by the enthusiasm of students eager to study.

It may not be easy for them to go and study there as each suffers some form of physical disability. But what they find even more painful they say is that they were recently forced to leave their old classroom in Seoul's Jeongnip Center for Rehabilitation and Independence.

They attend the Nodl Night School, from which more than 170 physically challenged students have graduated since 1993. But the center asked the school to leave at the end of last year, claiming that it had imposed a huge financial burden on the facility.

``It does not make sense in that the facility, initially established to take care of the disabled, expelled us, citing management difficulties,'' Cho Sa-rang, a volunteer teacher at the school, said in an interview with The Korea Times.

Cho, a junior majoring in education for the handicapped, has served as a teacher for three years.

``They alleged that electricity used at night was more expensive than in daytime. But that's nonsense. Jeongnip Center is a very rich organization.''

According to her, the reason was the center was reacting to what they saw as the students' attitudes being too demanding and aggressive.

``The center disliked us because we repeatedly joined in a string of protests calling for the improvement of services for the physically challenged,'' she said.

The night school received a government subsidy of 80 million won last year, according to the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. But the current law prohibits the government aid from being used to pay the rent for a place to study.

``If the money can be used to pay rent, the number of unqualified night schools could sprout up to wrongly benefit from misuse of the money,'' said Kim Eun-ju, a researcher at the ministry. `` Thus we only approve night schools that already have sufficient funds to maintain their classrooms.''

Window To the Outside World

There are nearly 2.2 million physically disabled people nationwide, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. But 45 percent, or approximately one million have spent their lives with no basic education such as reading and writing.

Insufficient infrastructure for the disabled has made the situation worse, said Park Kyung-seok, the principal of the night school.

``For some students here, it is the first time they have ever interacted with a different person,'' Park said. ``Korean society gives less attention to the disabled. It is still hard to see convenient facilities such as elevators installed at schools and other public facilities to help physically disabled students. Furthermore, schools specialized in the disabled are mostly focused on the mentally disabled.''

The principal underlined this class is not a place merely to teach disabled adults to pass qualification examinations. ``It's an organization where these people socialize with others for the first time. We are creating the foundation for these people.''

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced on Jan. 17 that it was setting up specialized night classes for the physically challenged at Jeongmin School, renowned as a specialized school for the disabled. The office offered to accept the students from Nodl, but the school rejected the offer, stressing its distinctive role in supporting the disabled.

``Disabled students are choosing night schools because they have more flexibility in time and academic standards,'' the school head said. ``If the office cannot come up with fundamental measures to meet their demands, it should at least try to support the night schools that are actually helping the disabled to be reborn as independent individuals.''

pss@koreatimes.co.kr
sanghee@koreatimes.co.kr
Source: Korea Times