Currently, there is a lot of talk about school inclusion in Portugal, but the truth is that, despite optimistic speeches and apparently advanced legislation, we are still far from guaranteeing that all children have a truly equitable education suited to their needs.
From now on, we invite you to reflect: what do you know about inclusive education? What role does the school play? What is the family’s involvement? We dare to say that most people do not have the answer to these questions and, when they do, it is due to the need to look for emerging solutions and alternatives for their children or students.
In Portugal, Decree-Law No. 54/2018, of July 6, generated a paradigm shift regarding inclusive schools. The child’s individual characteristics have become the starting point for implementing support measures, in order to guarantee the learning and academic success of all children with educational needs. Children no longer have an associated label, they are no longer segregated and they begin to have a place in the educational system, however this place is still dependent on the context and the human, physical and organizational resources available.
This document removed some barriers and gave children more opportunities for learning, but it did not remove the barriers that actually prevent full inclusion. Schools are asked to provide a response for everyone, but reinforcement of human resources is not guaranteed. More flexibility, adaptation and differentiation is requested, but the time and space necessary for this are not guaranteed. Families are asked for more involvement, but are not given adequate support.
Today, educational teams are overloaded and often unmotivated, not because of a lack of will, but because of the awareness that inclusion is being supported by individual effort, and not by a prepared system. The teacher is responsible for the process of planning classes, managing complex behaviors, collaborating with the technical team, completing mandatory documents, among other tasks, in addition to the work carried out in the classroom context, mostly with large classes.
The growing number of children with educational needs, often accompanied by behavioral challenges and fragile family contexts, is a challenge for the school community. The school feels the impact of these realities on a daily basis, but continues to lack sufficient means to respond to them. Overworked technicians, insufficient therapists, operational assistants without adequate training, teachers who try hard but feel powerless.
It is urgent to think about: adequate spaces, real times for collaborative work, team stability, structured financing, accessible support technology and, above all, clarity. There are schools where inclusion works — and it generally works because there are committed management, highly dedicated teachers and teams that reinvent themselves every day. Furthermore, in other schools the distance between what is written and what happens is so great that, sometimes, it seems that the Decree lives in a parallel reality and inclusion is often a postponed promise, supported by exhausted professionals.
Furthermore, there is still a lack of effective articulation with all the child’s contexts. The truth is that the connection between school, family, health and social support is often fragmented and bureaucratic. Each entity speaks its own language and an integrated intervention is rarely created. When this articulation fails, the school ends up assuming the role of substitute for all other contexts, becoming unsustainable.
We know that political opinions, the reality of schools and families are divided on this topic, but we consider it pertinent and urgent to create a new paradigm so that schools are not overloaded, so that families are not left without answers and so that the government can be an ally.