Education for the deaf and the hearing impaired: an analysis of social indicators

Abstract

This paper presents, in a diagnostic way, a scenario of the education for the deaf and the hearing impaired in Brazil, the Midwest-region and the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, from 2007 to 2010. It aimed at the mapping of the enrollments and terms of service in which these students are inserted. For doing so, the study was based on the microdata from National Institute of Pedagogical Studies Anísio Teixeira (INEP), which is disclosed on the school census. It focused on analyzing the data considering the educational proposals focused on public policies for Special Education under discussion during the research period, thus, deepening the questions concerning inclusive education. Results have shown a growing number of enrollments of hearing impaired and deaf students in the national, regional and state spheres and that most students are enrolled in regular education, which points out the weakening of special education for these students along the last years. The conclusion is that this growing number of enrollments in regular education is probably a response to the imposition of brazilian educational policies during the research period, which guide the insertion of all students in this type of education. However, not only the conditions for including the deaf and hearing impaired students are questioned, but also the fact if this one would the best option, especially for the deaf, who have struggled for a bilingual school, which may respect their linguistic singularities, and this does not necessarily means the inclusive school molded by the current Brazilian government.