EDUCATION POLICY FOR THE ELDERLY IN BRAZIL AND THE EXPERIENCE OF THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF THE ELDERS – UNATI/UEA

The concern of education of mature adults and for the elderly is, above all, remembering that the human potential to develop and to influence others does not end at old age, this concern that only began to exist when the elderly gained major visibility due to the population aging and the increase in longevity. Objective: Analyze the road traveled by the educational policy for the elderly in Brazil, to its beginnings to the present day with emphasis on UNATI/UEA.

Methodology:
Literature with retrospective research, descriptive. The data gathering integrated statistic data from the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) 2010, official websites of the Brazilian government, virtual data banks of Scielo, indexed journals and considerate books that makes reference to this study such as (Nery e Yassuda1, 2012), (Vellas2, 2009) e (Cachioni3, 2003).

Results:
Many events were found, both nationally and internationally, that resulted in official documents that would serve as a foundation to the creation of educational policy for the elderly in Brazil, as well as creating the UNATI´s in Latin America and Brazil. Finishing with a description for the UNATI/UEA trajectory.

Conclusion:
The research has concluded that the policies of attention are still incipient to the elderly in Brazil and that the Brazilian UNATI´s provide quality of life and knowledge to the ones that age and those who care for the elderly, however, they still lack the knowledge and support by the government, for the services they provide to the Brazilian elderly.