Provincial Office of Education ‘3-year plan to activate special education’
The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education is implementing the ’Gyeonggi Special Education Activation 3-Year Plan’ to develop special education for students with disabilities and transform future education. The plan, which will be implemented in various fields from this year to 2026, consists of expanding special education personnel and care, establishing a future-oriented smart special education foundation, establishing the Gyeonggi Special Education Center and strengthening rapid response to behavioral intervention, and introducing universal design for education policy.
Expanding Special Education Personnel and Care
The provincial office of education has embarked on a large-scale expansion of special education teachers, specialized instructors, and caregivers this year to address overcrowded classes, age-based placement of kindergarten students, and the two-teacher-per-class system.
In the case of special education teachers, the provincial office of education additionally placed 188 special education teachers in special schools from kindergarten to high school in the first semester of last year. In particular, in the case of kindergartens, 42 teachers were added to places where children with special education needs were placed in two or more age groups and where temporary teacher vacancies occurred during the semester. A total of 230 new teachers were added.
The provincial office of education increased the number of special education instructors from 1,144 to 1,344 this year, increasing them by 200 and assigning them to each special school.
Establishing a Future-Oriented Smart Special Education Foundation
The provincial office of education is carrying out a project to link special education courses for each type of disability with digital technology to help students with disabilities solve problems in their lives and explore career paths.
Currently, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education is conducting research on building a growth-oriented special education platform based on artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the class participation and achievement of students with disabilities.
The provincial office of education plans to build a growth-tailored special education platform based on the results of developing a curriculum for students with disabilities next year and launch a pilot project for an AI-tailored special education platform in 2026.
Establishment of Gyeonggi Special Education Center and Strengthening of Action Mediation Response
The provincial office of education plans to establish a support system for the intervention of disabled students’ behaviors at each stage with the Gyeonggi Special Education Center, and to simultaneously improve the quality and effectiveness of special education in each region.
The provincial office of education will establish the Gyeonggi Special Education Center, which will be in charge of supporting and improving the support capacity of special education support centers in each region, and will move forward with the advancement of special education.
The education center will engage in the diagnosis and evaluation of disabled students, education, field training and employment support, family support, and student behavior intervention.
Introduction of the Nation’s First ‘Universal Education Policy Design’
The provincial office of education is currently promoting the application of universal design to all educational policies being promoted. It is the first in the country to apply the universal design concept originating from architecture to educational administration, and the key is to enable disabled students to participate from the stage of establishing educational policies.
This year, the provincial office of education is organizing and operating a consultative body for universal curriculum design, and plans to stabilize it by 2026 after continuous improvement.
