Question by Laurie: How well does Russia deal with disabilities?
I don’t have any disabilities but curious about this topic. People with disabilities. I heard Russian person talk about how difficult it is to graduate high school passing a test to graduate and colleges being very difficult. Is there a place for people with learning disabilities? Do they get teased worse in Russia?
My dad is an educator who has helped high school drop outs get GED. Does Russia have these programs?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Cossak
Cos…colleges is nothing for job,waist of time,people after school goes to university or institute,almost.
What do you think? Answer below!
Misanthropist says
What type of disabilities: learning disabilities or disabilities in general?
Sadly enough, I'd have to agree that Russia rather behind on accommodating people with physical disabilities: there are wheelchair ramps in my town (which is in the Moscow region), but I suspect that only mothers with strollers use them. I can't remember the last time I saw a person in a wheelchair out on the street. The government does pay them, but probably just as badly as the pensioners (i.e. barely enough to survive). On public transport there are seats reserved for old people, pregnant women and disabled people, but it's almost impossible for someone in a wheelchair to get onto the bus/train/trolley.
As for learning disabilities, children usually get placed in a sort of special education class (don't know about the teaching quality since I've never been in one). The can also choose to be home-schooled. As far as dropouts go, you can legally start working in Russia after 9th grade (as a janitor, railway worker or something else requiring no knowledge) or you can go to a college (as mark has already mentioned, in Russia college means vocational school – typically they're for hairstylists, seamstresses, etc.). There are also programs that let you finish the last 2 years of school in one and take the government test early.
mark k says
I can't speak for Moscow, but I live and teach in a Russian City of about 1.2 million people. My observation here about how Russia deals with disabled people is simple; they don't deal with them. A wheel chair ramp is almost unheard of here, and besides, even if a person could find a wheelchair ramp, they first couldn't leave their home without a lot of help. In apartment buildings (where the majority of Russian people live) the elevators are too small to fit a wheelchair. If by chance that person had a group of people who would fold the wheelchair and carry the person, public transport has no provision for disabled people.
In terms of learning disabilities, I teach in universities and have never seen any program of the sort. I have not heard of such a thing in the schools either, but not having taught in schools, I'm no expert.
Also, just so you know, the words "college" and university have two entirely different meanings in Russia. A college is a school where a student can go after the 9th grade and is not at all comparable to a university.