College to start course for mentally disabled

A local community college has accepted 27 prospective students for a part-time associate's degree program starting in March that was designed for the mentally handicapped, local media reported Wednesday.

The students, between 18 and 23 years old, will study hotel management at Shanghai Xuhui Local University on weekends, according to a report on the news website eastday.com.

The college started designing classes for the program in July to meet the special needs of the group, according to the report. It also assigned teachers to help them prepare for the national adult college entrance examinations.

"The mentally handicapped have skills that can serve society, so they should have an equal opportunity to receive a higher education," university president Zhang She said in the report.

Most of the students have been working in the restaurant industry for more than two years, so they can make use of the expertise that the program will provide, said Yu Huifang, the headmaster of the Jixun primary vocational school, where many of the students graduated from.

The employed students primarily work in entry-level positions such as cleaners and waiters. "Many of our graduates have been passed over for promotion because they don't have a higher education," Yu told the Global Times.

Yu said that many local universities have refused to create programs for mildly mentally handicapped students because they are afraid the courses will hurt the reputation of their other graduates.

Shanghai Xuhui Local University is among the first to design a program specifically for mentally handicapped students. "I think mentally handicapped students with a degree will have a bright future as long as their employers have the necessary corporate social responsibility and are willing to treat them like normal college graduates," said Ye Wangbei, a lecturer in the education department at East China Normal University.

Still, she said many enterprises currently lack such responsibility, but she remained hopeful they would improve in the future.