BEIJING - More than 82,800 disabled school-age children in China have failed to attend school between the start of the current academic year and March 2012, and 80 percent of them are from the countryside, the China Disabled People Union said in a press release Thursday, citing results from its latest census.

About 56 percent failed to go to school due to their disability, and 19 percent of them said they are too poor to afford schooling, according to a national survey launched concurrently with the census by the union and the Ministry of Education.

More than 4,300, or over five percent, of those polled said they have no access to special education catering to their needs.

The union has ordered its local branches to mobilize disabled children of school age, usually referring to those aged seven or above, to attend schools.

Local authorities have been encouraged to make home tutors available, provide education training for parents or subsidize families with disabled children.