Abstract:
The Mozambique Act on the National System of Education reaffirms the duty of the State in organizing and
promoting education for all, and considers inclusion, equity and equality as educational principles in all
subsystems. The implementation of these principles, in the perspective of Inclusive Education, places the
country under pressure to find adequate responses designed to identify and meet the variety of needs of the
pupils with Special Educational Needs in regular schools. This research was aimed to contribute to that end by
devising a model, adapted from the Response-to-Intervention model, for the identification, assessment and
intervention of pupils with Intellectual and Developmental Difficulties. The study was run under the Action-
Research methodology, technically built through a collaborative consultancy approach. It was developed in
three phases: The 1 st one consisted of devising a new model, adapted from the original one, a process that
involved the participating teachers; the 2 nd phase concerned testing the designed model; and the last phase was
the actual intervention on the targeted pupils as well as the sharing of the study’s results with teachers and
parents. Participants were 2 school managers; eleven primary school teachers and 556 2 nd grade pupils. Data
yielded a model consisting of three levels of intervention: Structural Intervention, Universal Screening, and
Group Intervention. The screening identified pupils “at risk”, once their responses were categorized as being
below pre-school, pre-primary school, 1 st grade and 2 nd grade. The intervention produced evidence from 29
pupils whose responses revealed Intellectual and Developmental Difficulties. Teachers hailed the model as
attainable, practical and viable for the Mozambican context.
