📋 Tender Overview
The Ministry of Education (MEC) invests in strengthening inclusive policies in the country. Among them is the National Policy of Special Education from the perspective of Inclusive Education (Pneepei), which serves audiences as blind and low vision students. This Tuesday, April 8, is celebrated the National Day of the Braille System. Established by Law No. 12,266/2010, the date honors the countrys first blind teacher, Jose Alvares de Azevedo, who introduced and taught the in Brazil. Braille is a universal system through which blind people can read and express themselves in all languages that use the Western alphabet.
In 2025, the MEC commemorates the Bicentnnario of the Braille System, created by Louis Braille, France, in 1825. Currently, the system is the main code of access to knowledge by reading and production written by blind students, enrolled in regular education systems. Brazil was the first nation to officially adopt the system and, on September 17, 1854, founded the imperial Institute of Blind Boys, current Benjamim Constant Institute (IBC), an entity linked to MEC. The purpose was to promote the teaching, production and diffusion of the Braille system to blind students with low vision from all over the country.
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The Basic Education School Census accounted for, in 2023, the existence of 4,321 blind students and 86,867 students with low vision in the Brazilian Basic Education Schools. To meet the educational demands of these students, MEC develops several actions. In 2023 and 2024, the ministry allocated R 439 million, through the School Direct Money Program - Multifunctional Resources Rooms (PDDE -SRM), for the acquisition of pedagogical materials, multifunctional equipment and assistive technology aimed at performing Specialized Educational Service (ESA). In all, 21,323 public schools were benefited throughout the country.
In addition to materials and technologies for curriculum accessibility that can be purchased through PDDE-SRM, the National Book and Teaching Material Program (PNLD) supports the distribution of didactic, pedagogical and literary works in accessible format. The program works through actions coordinated by MEC and the National Fund for the Development of Education (FNDE).
Through public actions and policies, MEC seeks to promote an equitable education for blind and low vision students, in line with the guidelines of the National Policy of Special Education from the perspective of inclusive education of 2008 and other legal frameworks of inclusive education.
Teacher Training - Another MEC action developed for this audience is teacher education. Over the past two years, 81,113 vacancies have been offered for ESA teachers and 34,470 for school managers, in an unprecedented manner via the National Continuing Training Network of Professionals of the Magisterium of Public Basic Education (Renafor). The Ministry also offered 114 courses, distributed by the Federal Higher Education Institutions (IFES) from all over the country, totaling an investment of R 30 million in these two years.
For basic education teachers, 1.25 million places will be offered by 2026, in the Special Education Improvement Course from the perspective of Inclusive Education, in partnership with the Open University of Brazil (UAB) and the Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination (CAPES).
Commission - MEC also operates on the Brazilian Braille Commission (CBB), established by Ordinance No. 319/1999. Composed of ministry representatives, specialized public centers for Braille material production of the five Brazilian regions and representatives of civil society, CBB is active, promoting periodic meetings.
The commission is to advise the MEC in the elaboration and conduct of a national policy for the use, teaching and diffusion of the Braille system in all its applying modalities, especially comprising the Portuguese language, mathematics and other exact sciences, as well as music and computer sciences.
