English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

A Gendered and Rights-Based Review of Vietnamese Legal Documents through the Lens of CEDAW
establish schools and classes for people with disabilities to restore their functions or to provide
them with education or vocation training to assist them in integrating into the society. It also
provides that priority will be provided by the State in allocating teachers, material foundations,
equipment and budget to schools and classes for people with disabilities established by the
State. The State will adopt preferential policies towards these schools established by
organizations and individuals. Further, Article 89 of the Law on Education provides that the
State will adopt policies for the granting of scholarships to pupils in vocational training schools
for people with disabilities, as well as adopt policies on tuition subsidy and reduction
of/exemption from tuition fees for learners who are disabled and handicapped people with
economic difficulties.
The five-year Strategic Education Development Plan 2006-2010 provides as a target to
have children with disabilities join the education system at the rate of 50 percent of the total
number in 2005 and 70 percent in 2010.
Both these laws and the Strategic Education Development Plan are gender-neutral and
do not provide any gender-specific references to the particular experiences of men or women.
There is a significant gender imbalance in terms of accessing education. 437 The illiteracy rate
among women with disabilities is 49 percent, as opposed to the 23 percent illiteracy rate
among men with disabilities. In Central Highlands, the imbalance in illiteracy is more
pronounced with 62 percent of women, and 34 percent of men, with disabilities being illiterate.
Another area where the gender imbalance is glaring is in access to lower secondary
education. Only 11 percent of women with disabilities completed the ninth grade, compared to
28 percent of men with disabilities. As to upper secondary school, 8 percent of men with
disabilities had access to it as opposed to 3 percent of women with disabilities. Overall, the
level of access to education for both men and women with disabilities is very low, but women
have even lesser access.
Recommendation: It is recommended that clearer guidelines be provided to
ensure that women and girls with disabilities are not overlooked. The guidelines should
provide that data collection and information must always be sex-disaggregated and
with appropriate gender analysis. Scholarships and subsidies must ensure that girls
and women amount to at least 30-50 percent of the grantees. Where this cannot be met,
a plan must be drafted and resources allocated to build capacity of women and girls to
be able to qualify in the next round for these scholarships/grants. This must be
implemented in areas where significant gender imbalance exists.
For persons with disabilities attending official boarding schools and EMSBs,
clear guidelines must be set on their reasonable accommodation, facilitation of their
mobility, and a system of monitoring that women and girls with disabilities benefit on
an equal basis, must be in place.
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Socialization
The Resolution No. 5/2005/NQ-CP of April 18, 2005 on Stepping Up Socialization of
Educational, Healthcare, Cultural, Physical Training and Sport Activities (Resolution on
437
Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, ‘Situational Analysis on Children with Disabilities in Viet Nam’, Labour and
Social Publishing House, Hanoi, 2004 (MOLISA Analysis), p. 121
Education (Article 10 of CEDAW)