Teachers shore up hope for autistic children and their parents

BEIJING, Sept.9 (Xinhua) -- Sept. 10 is China's Teachers' Day, a day on which educators across the nation are recognized for the hard work and dedication they have displayed in their efforts to educate the nation's youth.

However, for Zhang Meiyan, an instructor of autistic children at a private educational institute, it will be just another day at work.

The 28-year-old has never observed Teachers' Day before, although she has been teaching autistic kids at the Beijing Stars and Rain Institution for seven years.

Situated in the eastern suburbs of Beijing, Stars and Rain was China's first private educational institute specifically designed to suit the needs of autistic children and their families. It operates more like a non-government organization (NGO) than a school; none of its faculty have been formally authorized by the Ministry of Education.

Zhang said she still has reason to be proud of her teaching career, despite the lack of an official endorsement from the government. Her latest triumph came in the form of a six-year-old boy named Feng Nan, the oldest student in her class. When his mother Xu Fei brought him to the school five weeks ago, he was aggressive, petulant and unpredictable.

After meeting Zhang and participating in her classes, Feng can now sit quietly next to his mother without acting out or becoming violent. Like other children who suffer from autism, Feng finds it difficult to communicate his feelings appropriately, often ignoring the outside world instead of actively participating in it.

"Before we came here, Feng couldn't even distinguish black from white. Now, he can answer questions when he is asked," said Xu.

"I feel a sense of achievement when I see the changes in Feng and his mother. That's the reason I've never given up my job," Zhang said.

Zhang earns 3,000 yuan (470 U.S.dollars) a month, slightly higher than Beijing's average per capita income of 2,706 yuan. Zhang has to spend four hours a day commuting between her home and the school.

"I am already exhausted when I come home. Entertainment is a luxury for me. When I have time, I like to shop online," she said, adding that the clothes she buys rarely cost more than 30 yuan per article of clothing.

Zhang's experience is familiar to the rest of the nearly 40,000 special education instructors who live and work in China. These teachers dedicate themselves to educating the country's special-needs children, despite the low incomes and massive amounts of stress that are endemic to the profession.

According to the 2010 China Education Yearbook compiled by the Ministry of Education, there is only one special education instructor for every four special-needs children in China. The proportion in developed countries is one teacher for every two special-needs children, according to Wang Yan, director of the Special Education Institute of the Beijing Normal School.

"China is facing a severe shortage of special education teachers. Since most of them join the profession out of sheer passion, it's a pressing issue for the government to sustain their enthusiasm," said Wang.

At Stars and Rain, parents have to wait for more than a year to take training courses that allow them to learn how to properly teach their own children. These classes cost 6,600 yuan for two and a half months of schooling. Many of the parents travel long distances to take the courses.

"Curing autism is impossible. What I can do is to build a connection between parents and their children. I am trying to teach parents how to live with their autistic children and how to make arrangements for their own lives," said Zhang.

Regarding herself as a mediator for stressed-out and broken families, Zhang said that instructing autistic children is a rather difficult job.

Graduating from the Beijing Social Administration Vocational College with a bachelor's degree, Zhang is one of just four students out of her class of 54 who ended up taking a job in the special education sector.

Zhang's colleague Fan Qingwei has worked for Stars and Rain for about ten years. He said that he spends most of his time at work solving family-related problems.

"Dealing with parents is much harder than teaching their children. It is stressful, but it's good to feel needed," he said.

However, a feeling of being needed won't be enough to turn things around for China's autistic children. Many of the country's special-needs schools lack the facilities and staff they require.

"Despite rising public awareness of the needs of autistic children, governmental input in this sphere remains inadequate, especially in the training of professional instructors and capital support," said Wang.