DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATION/INCLUSION

Since 1990s Portugal has been improving best conditions for SEN pupils to access mainstream education and also to benefit from quality learning.

Nowadays inclusive school basic principles – based upon humanistic beliefs concerned with people’s rights, equity and social justice – are unquestionable. Teachers, parents and politicians recognize that traditional, formal models can lead to segregation and discrimination making social and educational integration difficult for disabled people. However, in order to maintain and develop quality education for these pupils it is important not only to preserve the availability of specialized human resources and specific tools but also to implement severe changes in the schools organization and in pedagogical practice.

This is not a direct process and although inclusive education principles are considered unquestionable, there are some weaknesses in the way they are put into practice. The concept of special educational needs apply to every child or young person showing any learning difficulty any time during their academic life. Due to its very comprehensive nature, it has created some problems in schools during detection of needs and in the process of evaluation. In effect, lying on value principles, it can assume different meanings in different contexts, allowing some pupils to be considered as SEN pupils even if they don’t show any considerable problem. Others pupils that really have special needs sometimes are not being conveniently cared of.

These aspects have raised some voices who argue about the lack of conditions in mainstream schools to meet the needs of these learners, highlighting the difficulty in getting specialized resources and the lack of specialized mainstream teachers’ training as effective obstacles to inclusive practice.

This division of opinions does not aim at bringing back the traditional models, but to improve the quality of education offered to SEN pupils in mainstream school settings.