BRAZIL IN 2025: special needs education

Buscapé Family

Currently, in 2025, after almost a decade since our spring course in Finland, in 2016, it is worth reflecting on the challenges we faced from 2016 to 2025, the actions undertaken in this period and how all this impacted the reality we live in 2025.

In fact, since that professional meeting, in 2016, or maybe before that, we had a positive view of the future in relation to education for special people in Brazil. Specially during the 21th century, for example, the buildings became more accessible, and the old ones was adapted to provide greater accessibility to people.

Back to 2016

In 2016, the reality in Brazil showed school inequalities, such as insignificant registration number of a person with disability in professional technical education, reduction of supply by the education systems in the programs of initial training articulated to basic education designed exclusively for this social segment, in the most part, developed in specialized institutions of private philanthropic character; the low effectiveness of programs for inclusion in regular professional education network as a whole, even considering the elementary aspects such as adequacy of physical space and availability of rooms with multifunctional resources.  

During VET3, we hoped that all schools would be accessible and that teachers do training to deal and work with students with special needs. Also we hoped that schools have adequate environment for all students, and they do not feel excluded and have to change for a special school. Even though schools have such accessibility and responsiveness, also we wanted the possibility of some schools to offer specialized care for certain cases where it was really needed.

We remember that, in a group discussion of VET homegroup in 2016 we thought:

a. one factor that may help in the developing of special needs education is the training of servers to help students with special needs, especially of teachers. 

b. to have an inclusive education is essential training teachers to work with these students, seeking to develop the specific needs teaching materials appropriate for each student having access to different capabilities and resources to their development with support of specialized professionals seeking to stimulate the learning process for all students.

c. another factor to be considered is the partnership and involvement of many actors who work with these students: teachers, school administrators, families, community, other classmates.

d.  to have an inclusion of students with special needs in a class with other students is important to reduce the number of students in this class to have a better monitoring of these students enabling the coexistence between students with special needs and other students.

e.  another point that we can highlight is the need to reform and adjustment the physical spaces to all spaces of the school be accessible to a wide range of needs ( blindness, difficulties in walking, wheelchair ... )

Reality in 2025

In Brazil, in the field of special education we have expanded access for people with special needs to the educational activities of the institution and support the integration of these citizens in the labor market, thus we have promoted their inclusion. Firstly, we receive everyone, welcoming diversity, with the recognition of the learning rights for all. In the process of learning individualization we focus in eliminating barriers and providing full opportunities of development to all.

Along with this, we invest in adaptation of the institutions infrastructure to the needs of the person with disabilities and acquiring specific educational technologies, such as equipment, accessories and materials.

Besides all of this, we created and developed a collaborative network and partnerships (building bridges) to ensure the expansion of care for people with special needs enabling the preparation not only to act in the labor market, but for effective participation in political, social and cultural life in Brazil.

Technologies have expanded a lot since 2016, and we have integrated them as much as possible to help in the challenge of overcoming the problems with accessibility. In addition, they have helped in the waste production, new energy sources and genetic improvement of food. After the deep 2022 crisis, countries and finally the world's population signed pact with improved quality of life for everyone, for humanity survival in a world with effective water shortages. The whole situation has helped to build the world we have today, in 2025, and the launch of new challenges for us to spread our progress not only schools in the federal school system, but for all schools in the world progressively have become ever more inclusive and socially relevant.

In the Midwest of Brazil, in 2025, 90% of students are succeed in regular classrooms because they get the emotional, academic, health and medical help they need. For this, there is training for teachers in the promotion of individual learning plan to help students with special needs. There are partnerships and involvement of teachers, school administrators, families, community, other classmates and so on. We have reformed and adjusted the schools physical spaces becoming them accessible to a wide range of needs (blindness, difficulties in walking, wheelchair, learning difficulties and high skills). The learning process is guided for a team that involves principal, special education teacher, school nurse, phychologist and the classroom teachers.