Despite advances in the last decade, inclusive education is still far from being a reality
Bruno is 7 years old and studies at a private school in Vila Buarque, in São Paulo. Every day, he uses a walker or wheelchair to travel the 500 meters that separate his home from school. For Selma Goes, Bruno's mother, one of the advantages of living in this neighborhood is that the sidewalks are accessible, especially when compared to those in other areas of the city.
“We know families who live on the outskirts and, there, the difficulties are greater. In many places, there aren’t even sidewalks,” says Selma.
Selma and her husband thought a lot before enrolling Bruno in a regular school. On the one hand, special schools are better prepared to receive any students. But, on the other hand, the challenge of living with regular school children could be a good stimulus for Bruno. Finally, one of the points that favored regular schooling was the idea of living with neighborhood children and creating bonds of friendship with them. A year and a half later, the balance is positive.
“This year, he already has more autonomy. The progress is visible, Bruno has made a good improvement. I think because of coexistence with others and maturity,” speculates Selma.
As a private school student, Bruno's case is rare. According to a survey from the Ministry of Education carried out in 2014, 86% of students considered a target audience for special education and enrolled in regular schools attend the public network. But, although most public policies in the field of special education are aimed at public schools, private institutions are also obliged to offer adequate conditions for all their students.
“But, in practice, it is very different”, says Lenir Santos, president of the Down Syndrome Foundation, in Campinas. “There is a lot of difficulty for the school to really have these special resources according to the students’ needs.”
The Brazilian Law on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, of 2015, determines that private schools cannot reject a student because of their disability nor charge extra costs. Its promulgation was challenged by private schools, which filed a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality against the law, stating which would make the costs of private education “prohibitive” and compromise “the existence of private schools”. The action was finally declared dismissed by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in May 2016.
Integration
The idea that all children should attend the same schools, regardless of their physical or intellectual abilities, is very recent. Until the 1980s, the prevailing view was that children who did not fit into the standard established as “normal” should study in special schools. The paradigm behind this idea was that, by encouraging autonomy and development, the student could eventually integrate into regular school and society. However, critics of this model, known as “integration”, consider that, paradoxically, one of its main problems is that it ends up encouraging the exclusion of students from special schools.
In recent decades, the integration paradigm has weakened, giving way to a proposal called “inclusion”. If before the emphasis was on training people with disabilities to be able to integrate into school, the current model aims to change the school so that it is capable of including all types of students.
“Inclusion is about difference. We are all different. There are no conditions for us to make school just for a few”, says Maria Teresa Eglér Mantoan, coordinator of the Laboratory of Studies and Research in Teaching and Difference (LEPED) at Unicamp and one of the country's greatest experts in school inclusion.
Since the 1990s, Brazil has been ratifying international agreements and creating its own legislation to guarantee the rights of people with disabilities and, in particular, the right to inclusive education. Over the last decade the effects of the development of this legal framework have become evident. According to data from the Ministry of Education, between 2003 and 2014 the proportion of students with disabilities in special and regular schools reversed. While in 2003 only three out of ten enrollments occurred in regular schools, in 2014 this proportion was eight out of ten.
For Mantoan, this revolution in inclusion is not only a consequence of legislation, but of the tenacity of families like Bruno's.
“In Brazil, our greatest promoters are parents. They are the ones who send the child to school. According to Brazilian teachers, today, we would not have more than 80% of children. Parents even force teachers to comply with the law”, says Mantoan.
Enrollment, however, is just the first step to ensuring inclusion. Schools also need to be accessible spaces, with ramps and elevators that allow any student to move around the facilities with relative ease. And in addition to creating accessible environments, Brazilian law also determines that schools must offer Specialized Educational Assistance (AEE) and a Multifunctional Resource Room (SRM). The idea is that specialized teachers can complement the training received in regular classes using resources adapted to the needs of each student. But this doesn't always happen.
“The biggest difficulty I see – because today schools cannot refuse students – is that they do not consider the different needs of that child”, says Lenir Santos. “And, often, she will just stay inside the room.”
The building where Bruno's school operates recently underwent a major renovation, which was used to improve accessibility, but it still does not have AEE or SRM. However, since Bruno's arrival, some things have changed. For example, as Bruno has difficulty carrying out activities that require fine motor coordination – such as writing –, the school adapted the tests so that he can respond with collages or marking multiple-choice answers.
“The school didn’t know what to do with him. It was learning together. The first year was based on improvisation, but this year it’s a little better”, explains Selma.
Many of these improvements were suggested by Bruno's private psychomotor specialist, who works directly with the school. But the cost of this guidance is borne entirely by the family.
Cuts and setbacks
Although inclusion is still far from being a reality, the country has made great strides in this regard, as evidenced by indicators from the Ministry of Education. Today, practically all municipalities in Brazil have students with disabilities, pervasive developmental disorders or giftedness in their regular schools. And the number of teachers trained in Special Education increased, in 11 years, from 33.691 to 97.459. But in recent years that momentum has been losing steam.
Data obtained through the Federal Government's Transparency Portal show that spending on Special Education has been suffering successive cuts since 2013, until it completely disappeared in 2017. This decrease was not a consequence of cuts in education as a whole, since the total spent on education remained between R$80 billion and R$100 billion per year.
Although spending on education has remained relatively stable over recent years, spending on special education has been reduced from R$5,5 million to zero in four years. Source: Transparency Portal
“By taking money away from Special Education programs, they are causing a return to low-cost outsourcing in special schools from institutions such as APAE [Associations of Parents and Friends of the Exceptional], denounces Mantoan. “They are trying everything they can to roll back the gains we have made.”
The Secretariat of Continuing Education, Literacy, Diversity and Inclusion (SECADI), a federal government entity responsible for inclusion policies, did not answer [IA1] to questions sent by the report by email.
In addition to spending cuts, experts and associations have also expressed concern about the progress of a bill that could result in a new obstacle to inclusion. O PL 7.212/2017, authored by deputy Áureo Lídio Moreira Ribeiro (SD-RJ), proposes the creation of a Specialized Support teacher in Special Education. For many experts, the idea involves a return to the precepts of “integration”.
The project was described by the National Forum for Inclusive Education (FNEI) as “an affront to human rights”. FNEI considers that the way the project is written could result in the exclusion of target students from special education in regular schools.
Unicamp LEPED researchers also took a stand against the project, claiming that it is “discriminatory” and that the creation of this new teacher would be “another way of delaying the necessary transformations in common school teaching and Special Education in the implementation of school inclusion”.
But if cuts and potential setbacks can make it difficult to effectively implement inclusion in schools, the data shows that families are overwhelmingly committed to this path. For Mantoan, they “are recognizing their rights and do not accept any attack on them”. On the other hand, all laws and policies in favor of inclusion are well based on the Federal Constitution, which gives them a certain legal protection.
The psychomotorist who works with Bruno said he might be able to walk without a walker or wheelchair within a year and a half. “According to her, his body is already prepared for this and he will be able to do it, but he is not yet mature,” says Selma. The prognosis is very positive, and she is optimistic. “But it’s all with an ant’s steps.”
[IA1]Email sent on Saturday the 2nd at 10 am.