Article by Maria Teresa Mantoan (LEPED/UNICAMP) and José Eduardo Lanuti (NEPI/UFMS), exclusively for the blog Vencer Limites.
“Today, the Ministry of Education has a unique moment to recover what was disfigured by the PNEEPEI and monitor its implementation throughout the national territory”.
The National Policy on Special Education in the perspective of Inclusive Education – PNEEPEI (BRAZIL, 2008) risked being badly defined, in 2017, and even revoked, in 2022, by Decree 10.502, which provided for the return of special schools for some students.
Despite these attempts to “update” and distorted interpretations of its guidelines, the PNEEPEI has survived and remains in force, with the support of families and professionals who know how important it is in school spaces that intend to be truly inclusive. Its conception and guidelines continue to be guaranteed by legal results and educational advances in line with the national and international legal frameworks of which Brazil is a signatory.
The current government awaits the resumption of the PNEEPEI. It is no coincidence that President Lula, in his inauguration on 1 January 2023, revoked Decree 10502 and, on his first day in office, established the return of the PNEEPEI, as it was conceived and signed in 2008, as one of the bolder educational policies in recent times. Its rebirth will not admit of any change, so that its project, its particularities and its theoretical-philosophical foundations are not mischaracterised.
Our schools, at all levels (basic and high school), must be inclusive by virtue of our Constitution and Brazilian educational legislation. Our school education is compulsory from the ages of 4 to 17, only in mainstream schools! Special Education is a complementary/integrative modality to the training of the students who make up the reference target: people with disabilities; with autism spectrum disorders and with high skills/gifts. As such, it does not replace mainstream education, either in special schools or mainstream schools, as we have yet to notice in many education systems.
The biases in understanding the PNEEPEI need to be resolved, as they have caused many problems. For example, it is incorrectly believed that the Multifunctional Resources Room (SRM) is a segregated space, when in fact it is the work environment of the teacher of Specialized Educational Assistance (EEE), a service provided by Special Education in schools inclusive. It is there that, after school hours, students can, for example, learn Braille, communicate through Supplementary and Alternative Communication (CSA), move around the school using sticks, tactile maps, etc. towards the activities and contents developed in common education.
According to PNEEPEI, it is at the SRM that the families of Special Pedagogy students are welcomed to inform the school about the development of their children, assisted by this service; that the common room teacher can exchange information with the SEA teacher on the physical, communicative, attitudinal and linguistic barriers that the school environment can impose on the student; what accessibility features are produced and evaluated for their functionality. This space is, therefore, fundamental and cannot be confused with a tutoring room, as happens when you don’t understand what the PNEEPEI preaches.
The benefits of the AEE are not limited to the SRM, as its function is precisely to create the conditions for the students served to have access to everything they are entitled to, in every school and in life outside it. The EEE takes place on the basis of two tools: the Case Study and the elaboration of the EEE Plan. These strategies (unknown to most educational networks!) are personalized and cater to a student’s individual needs, so that they are part of the community, without discrimination. Unfortunately, this is not the case in most schools because the PNEEPEI has not been implemented.
The distortions of the PNEEPEI have made the EEA at the mercy of practices that are based on the old model of Special Education – which has replaced mainstream education. Therefore, our duty is to claim its implementation, as originally thought and presented.
Many are those who are not aware (or simply ignore) the fact that special education from an inclusive education perspective does not teach curriculum content. They believe that EEE can also occur during class hours, in the common room, and this understanding has led many interns, teachers and other support professionals (with no preparation) to be hired to teach some students considered “problem” one-on-one. . Such a simplistic arrangement makes teachers keep their usual teaching methods, dedicating themselves only to those who “follow the activities”, forgetting that a teacher is a teacher for EVERYONE! Teaching is undoubtedly a process that takes place in the community, otherwise the school loses its meaning.
The lack of understanding of what Special Education is as a teaching method, therefore, has meant that the exclusion also took place within the common classrooms, through a facilitated, adapted, simplified teaching for the recipients of Special Education. Covering all stages and levels of basic and higher education, Special Education, in the guidelines of the PNEEPEI, has contents and functions which, while promoting access, permanence and participation, we repeat, have nothing to do with do with the teaching that takes place in the classrooms.
Ordinary school teachers, school administrators at all levels, families and teacher educators need to come to a true understanding of the PNEEPEI and its coherence with what is characteristic of our basic and high schools: to be truly inclusive!
The Brazilian school forms citizens in public life and no longer allows the separation of some due to comparisons of learning levels and behaviors based on a predefined model. We all need to be appreciated for who we are: unique beings worthy of respect.
The Ministry of Education has, today, a unique opportunity to recover what has disfigured the PNEEPEI and monitor, throughout the country, its implementation, as it was designed, according to practices and principles that are genuine to it. Certainly, this task will continue to require many battles, however, the foundations of PNEEPEI are solid enough to counter any attacks on its essence and its innovative and cutting-edge practices, as well as all its unequivocal legal support.
Go to work!
Maria Teresa Eglér Mantoan, tmantoan@gmail.com, has a PhD in Education and is a professor in the Degree Course in Education at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), coordinator of the Study and Research Laboratory on Teaching and Difference (LEPED ).
José Eduardo de Oliveira Evangelista Lanuti, eduardo.lanuti@ufms.br, holds a PhD in Education from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), professor of the degree program in Education and graduate courses at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul ( UFMS ) in Três Lagoas, and coordinator of the Center for Studies and Research on Inclusion (NEPI).
Source: Terra
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