Lam Dong (VNA) –Choi Young-sook, a Korean woman in her 60s with a doctorate degree inaudiology, has been dedicating her time to students with disabilities in Da Latcity in the Central Highland province of Lam Dong over the past eight years.

Choi has many yearsof experience in teaching hearing-impaired students at Pusan Kuhaw school inthe Republic of Korea (RoK). Previously, as a lecturer at the INJE Universityin Gyeognam province, she decided to retire early to focus on special educationin Vietnam.

Ahead of the Tet(Lunar New Year) festival, Vietnam News Agency (VNA)’s reporter had anopportunity to talk with Choi at Lang Café – a community venue for children whoare hard of hearing, set up by her and Lam Dong School for the HearingImpaired.

Choi shared with thereporter some of the latest developments in special education in the RoK andsuggested what Vietnam should do to reform its education system towards beingmore inclusive.

She first visitedLam Dong School for the Hearing Impaired in 2005. After becoming more familiarwith the school and highlighting some of its shortcomings, Choi decided tooffer her hand to overcome these barriers.

Over the past eightyears, Choi and her partners have carried out many activities to help childrenwith disabilities.

Korean specialeducation experts have been travelling to Vietnam to conduct training coursesfor teachers, Choi said. She has introduced 25 experts from the KoreanWonmyeong Daejeon University to Da Lat, thus far training 80 teachers. InAugust 2018, 13 special education experts from the RoK held training courses inthis field in Vietnam with the participation of 35 schools in the southernregion of Vietnam.

Along witheducation, the Lam Dong School for the Hearing Impaired and the Lam Dong BlindAssociation have provided music and physical education classes for secondaryschool students.

Choi said she feelsvery happy in doing her work, with herself and her spouse often taking part insocial activities with the provincial Red Cross Society.

So far, she hascalled on donators to coordinate with the provincial Red Cross Society to build13 houses for people with disabilities, as well as buy 269 wheelchairs and over400 bicycles for poor and ethnic minority students.

 “My biggest desire in the future is toestablish a development centre for children with disabilities so that they canreceive appropriate education even before the age of three,” she said.

 Choi added that in Vietnam, the detection andeducation of disabled children remains slow, especially as most children do notgo to school until the age of six. Children with congenital disabilities, iffound early before the age of three, are likely to overcome their disabilitiesthrough early special education, Choi said.

 “With my efforts and the assistance of Koreanand Vietnamese donors, I hope the special education system in Vietnam can beimproved,” she added.–VNA