Política de inclusão escolar de pessoas com necessidades educacionais especiais no ensino superior e as universidades federais mineiras

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand the process of organization and structuring underlying the inclusion policies of students with Special Educational Necessities (SEN) adopted by the federal government owned universities (UFM) in the state of Minas Gerais, Br.The purpose was to acknowledge these process by evaluating the limitations, possibilities and setbacks posed to them in the course of actions that allegedly had the purpose of ascertain access and permanence of such students in those institutions, along the period ranging from 2003 to 2007. The research has been structured upon three main courses: a) study of theoretical references about the subjectb) data survey in archives of government departments, such as the INEP - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas e estudos em Educação (National Institute of Research and Studies in Education), the MEC - Ministério da Educação e Cultura (Ministry of Education and Culture) over inclusion in general, and in particular, over inclusion at the UFM, and, c) data produced directly from the UFM, thru applications and interviews. The aproach of the study was, then, both quantitative and qualitative. The means to achieve these goal included bibliographic research, with emphasis on legal texts, combined with the analysis of data produced by the applications and the knowledge raised thru semi-structured interviews. The quantitative approach was considered necessary for a more comprehensive understanding of the many UFM under scrutiny, but further analysis of that data provided qualitative insights as well. The time range - 2003 to 2007 - was chosen for its importance for being a period of rich production and development of legislature related to social andeducational inclusion, of which is an important document the Portaria 3284/2003: this piece of legislation demanded compliance to the previously established requirements of accessibility for people with SEN by organizations pursuing official authorization or recognition of new or existing courses offered in higher education institutions that needed their accreditation to operate. The study reveals that the UFM are, in diversedegrees of commitment, adapting to the requirements of inclusive education. The implementation of inclusive policies at the federal owned institutions is clearly being more intense ever since the government - especially federal, in this case - begun to offer financing facilities for such actions. Many UFM are still short of offering a good response to the legislation requirements to the accessibility guaranteed by law to the student with SEN, but at least a nucleus for dealing with these questions can be observed already in operation in some, and in formation in others.It also became clear the importance and the necessity of a broaderdiscussion on the rights of the higher education students with SEN as well as a more encompassing exchange of information and cooperation among the institutions in order to ensure that such processes be set in motion in a more stable and straightforward way at the UFM. Also important, and a consequence of the exchanges mentioned, is theneed to revise and update the official data available: one result of this study, also, were the strong and important evidence of disparities between the archives of MEC/INEP and reality.