In an interview with CNNin the board CNN Educationthe superintendent of the Rodrigo Mendes Institute, Rodrigo Hübner Mendes, argued that the inclusive school model should be adopted.
He admitted that, at first, it might seem better to have a special school, only for students with disabilities, with trained professionals and reserved places. “However, that model did not work out.”
“Children in these environments have not built autonomy, there is not the kind of stimulus necessary for them to actually seek their best and have a chance of autonomy. This is why experts from around the world recommend adopting inclusive school,” she explained.
In this model, according to Rodrigo, the school “is willing to transform and change the way it works”: “It starts to have a pedagogical planning team, explores other technologies, is always recycling its knowledge, with new training, as a third point , the child with a disability may need a specialist, but it can happen at school.”
This change, for the specialist, “favors all students”: “All this updating and oxygenation necessary for the pedagogical team makes it have a team that is more attentive to the contemporary world, not only those with disabilities, when you have a project pedagogy with attentive teachers, the whole wins.”
For the model to thrive in Brazil, however, Rodrigo Mendes highlighted the need for a strong public policy. “It is necessary to prioritize establishing guidelines for the entire education network.”
He reported that he visits several schools across the country and has already noticed a pattern: “The income factor, physical infrastructure, investment volume is not necessarily the main generator of inclusive practice.”
According to Rodrigo, it is clear that resources are essential, but there are educational institutions in which “what made the big difference was a director who embraces inclusion as a value, a premise, and together with other educators manage to mobilize to change the way of acting.”
Source: CNN Brasil
