Challenges
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been promoting as an international goal the provision of access to quality education for all, regardless of factors such as gender, ethnicity and disability. About 15 percent of the world’s population has a disability and about 80 percent of those people reside in developing countries. An estimated 93 million children worldwide live with disabilities. Like all children, children with disabilities need quality education to develop their skills and realize their full potential. At the same time, children with special educational needs (SEN)–such as intellectual disability, visual impairment or deafness–are less likely to complete basic education. This has negative individual and collective repercussions, in particular social exclusion and the feeding of a vicious circle of poverty. Thus, there is a need for inclusive education that promotes greater autonomy for children with disabilities and integrates them into mainstream school systems. This orientation requires additional resources, in particular teachers and support staff with specialized training and access to adapted teaching materials. Cabo Verde has been developing initiatives in the field of inclusive special education, namely the elaboration of specific training plans for teachers. About 1,000 children with SEN are enrolled in the country’s schools.
Toward a Solution
The School for All was a South-South cooperation project between Brazil and Cabo Verde implemented by Brazil’s Ministry of Education, the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) and Cabo Verde’s Ministry of Education. Supported by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), the project aimed to support the Cabo Verdean education system to develop and offer inclusive education in its various interfaces. In a first phase (2006-2007), teachers were trained in three areas: Braille system and unified mathematical code; orientation and mobility (for visually impaired students); and Portuguese-language teaching for persons who are deaf, with the provision of didactic material and specialized pedagogical kits. In a second, more comprehensive, phase, the project carried out activities in three main areas, described below.
- Implementation of a teacher training course (250 hours) for complementary specialized educational care, covering 11 modules (distance education, specialized educational care, assistive technology, physical disability, intellectual deficiency, visual impairment, deafness, autism, intellectual giftedness, pedagogical assessment of students with disabilities and curricular adaptation). Two thirds of the modules were conducted remotely (virtual learning environment) and the remainder through in-person classes (in both Cabo Verde and Brazil).
- Development of guidelines for public policies on inclusive education and assistive technology, with a view to strengthening the process of inclusion of students with SEN in mainstream schools. In this context, several studies were carried out in Cabo Verde that resulted in documents and activities to guide the development of a national policy on inclusive education. These activities were notably related to the Cabo Verdean sign language, with the registration of signs used by the hearing impaired in the different islands of the country, the preparation of a dictionary of signs in Creole (in printed and digital formats) and the provision of sign language courses and training of interpreters.
- Implementation of three multifunctional resource rooms to provide specialized educational services for students with SEN in three schools on the islands of Fogo, Santo Antão and Santiago (the three rooms have been serving as a reference in accessibility for students with disabilities). Teachers and students also received training in practical work in the multifunctional resource rooms, through an in-person course using the materials available in the rooms.
Up to 2017, about 300 primary- and secondary-school teachers in Cabo Verde have been involved in the programme, in addition to 50 teachers trained in specialized educational assistance, 40 teachers in transcription and adaptation of materials in Braille and four teachers in deaf-blindness and assistive technology. This training-of-trainers strategy ensured the sustainability and geographical expansion of the project. Furthermore, a testament to the initiative’s replicability, the School for All project, in a similar format, was also developed in Angola between 2008 and 2015, with the support of the Brazilian Ministry of Education.
