EDUCATION-BRAZIL:
'Inclusive' Schools - Bar Some
Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (IPS) - A popular soap opera that portrays a mother in search of a school that will accept her daughter as just another student has sparked a public debate in Brazil on whether or not children with Down's syndrome should be enrolled in standard schools.

In "Pages of Life", a prime time show on the Globo network, aired Monday to Saturday at 9 pm, Helena -- played by renowned actress Regina Duarte -- first has to fight for her adopted daughter not to be treated as "special" in an overly condescending way that does not allow her to test her limits, at her first school.

Then she faces rejection from other reputable schools, where head teachers claim they lack the expertise to accept disabled pupils.

Later, Helena meets another mother, who is pleased to have her daughter at a special school for the disabled, where the child is happier than she was at a mainstream school where "she suffered a great deal."

This last episode "shocked" Claudia Werneck, president of the non-governmental organisation People School (Escola de Gente). Until that point, she had approved of the treatment of the subject by the series' screenwriter, Manoel Carlos, because it made the point that children with disabilities have the right to attend ordinary schools.

But the turn taken by the soap opera in the second week of November was "an affront to Brazilian law," which states that educational institutions, private as well as public, must accept all students without discrimination, and "not even families are entitled" to deprive their children of a mainstream education, Werneck told IPS. "Parents do not own their children," she added.

The episode in which a mother justifies choosing a special school "legitimises unconstitutional behaviour," and the soap opera's treatment of the problem has taken a "dangerous" turn, because it supports the predominant school of thought that tends to segregate disabled people from society in general, conceiving of them as "their family's problem, not society's," Werneck said.

Inclusive schools, which form part of Brazil's educational policy as enshrined in its constitution and international treaties to which it is a signatory, have to be capable of teaching everyone, without exceptions or discrimination of any kind, "accepting the country's children just as they are," she stated.

If a school discriminates against someone who has Down's syndrome, "it can discriminate against anyone," while "special schools are complementary, and can't replace mainstream schools," she added.

There is a legal angle to the controversy. One month ago, Judge Gustavo Santini Teodoro in Sao Paulo ruled that a private school had the right to refuse admission to a girl with Down's syndrome, against her mother, the plaintiff. Looking after the disabled was the duty of the state, not private institutions, the judge argued.

The trial is not over. The prosecution promised to assess the verdict in the light of Brazilian law and previous cases in which schools were condemned for rejecting students.

Inclusive education is generally welcomed in theory, but in practice opinions are divided. It is seldom enforced in schools, and many restrictions apply, even in private schools which cater to wealthy sectors of the population.

A report published this month in the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo said that only two-thirds of 18 schools surveyed, which included the city's most traditional educational establishments, accepted disabled pupils. Some of these, however, drew the line at "complicated" cases like severe autism.

In Brasilia, the capital, a law stipulates that by the end of 2007 all local schools must be inclusive. However, so far only 132 schools, 21 percent of the total, are in compliance with this directive, according to the district's Secretariat for Education..

Fully inclusive schools "are possible, and are a goal to be pursued, but they imply a profound transformation in education, which has a long way to go, because in general schools lack the structure and the training to absorb disabled students," Helena Godoy, a teacher, told IPS.

She gave as an example the Dom Pedro II schools, which have a long history and an enviable reputation, where she taught for years.

"The teachers are conservative," resistant to changes imposed on them, and they argue that they have not been trained to teach students with such a wide range of abilities. Preparing them for the changes ahead will take a great deal of arduous work to "eliminate prejudices," she said.

Godoy recalled the "fear" aroused among the staff and students when a child with cerebral palsy and its associated motor difficulties attended the school where she worked.

The 15 Dom Pedro II schools, which are funded by the federal government and are mainly located in Rio de Janeiro, are equipped with books in Braille for blind students, but few other schools have them, she said.

The Brazilian school system faces the immense challenge of accepting hearing impaired students en masse in the next few years, as ordered by the Ministry of Health. A large number of teachers and translators of Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS) will need to be trained to fulfil this goal.

But the deaf community itself is divided over the appropriateness of mainstream schools. Many see themselves as belonging to a separate deaf culture, equivalent to an ethnic minority, because they have their own language, and they defend their right to a different education.

Approximately 15 percent of the country's population of 187 million is estimated to suffer from a disability of some kind.