Special Education Policies in an inclusive perspective in Angola: context, advances and emerging needs (1979-2017)

Starting from the universal thesis that every child has the right to education, including those with disabilities, the research leads us to an analysis of Special Education Policies from an inclusive perspective in Angola, believing that a whole set of multifaceted and contextual factors have implications for its practice. In order to analyze the course of the current Angolan special education policy, the contexts of the late Proclamation of Independence, civil war and extreme poverty in the country that influenced it on a large scale, its implementation is also impacted by the country's cultural diversity. The time frame of the study goes back to the year of implementation of special education (Decree no. 56/79, in 1979) and the creation of the first Special Education Policy (Presidential Decree no. 187/17, in 2017). Based on a qualitative approach of documentary and bibliographic matrix, giving priority to United Nations (UN) documents that defend a focus on the promotion of Human Rights and authors that emphasize the recognition of differences, diversity and how local reality can influence educational policy (AINSCOW, 2001; SACRISTAN, 2000; QUIROGA, 2010: ARTILES; KOZLESKI, 2019; among others), the results led us to assess that special education in Angola is conceived as a specific and differentiated area of education based on a medical model of disability. However, it was also evident in the political discourse, the intention to make the educational system increasingly more inclusive, despite the fact that practices reveal a long way to go so that the discourse assumed is closer to the practices.