Seoul City’s education office vowed Wednesday to build three more special schools for the disabled by 2019 to improve the education infrastructure.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said it would establish two schools for those with intellectual disabilities in the eastern and western capital, and one school in Gangnam for those with physical disabilities.

If successfully built, they will be the first of such schools established in the city since 2003. As of this year, a total of 29 special education schools are running in Seoul.

This is part of medium-term support measures for the disabled, with the country marking its 36th Disabled Persons Day on Wednesday, officials said.
Concerns, however, remain over potential opposition from neighborhood residents.

Previous plans to build a job training center and two schools for the disabled had hit a snag due to opposition from vocal residents who claimed the facilities would hurt their communities’ image and effect real estate prices.

“Many people still view special schools as ‘unpleasant institutions.’ Selecting the location for the schools will be most crucial. Unless the office successfully determines the region and deals with the communities’ opposition, it will be tough to build schools,” said Kim Chi-hun, the disability policy and research director of the Korean Parents’ Network for People with Disabilities.

The office said it would discuss available sites for the schools with the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Of some 13,000 disabled students in the city, 35 percent attend special schools while the rest go to general schools.

Due to scarcity of the schools, out of some 4,600 disabled students, about 42 percent spend on average about 30 minutes to one hour commuting to school, according to the survey by the education office. Of those surveyed, 3 percent said their commute time was about one to two hours on average.

Overcrowded classrooms are also another hurdle for the disabled.

Most of the special schools in the city are overcrowded, with an overpopulation rate exceeding 150 percent in some schools.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)