The Community Development Authority in Dubai revealed four challenges facing the academic support team for children of determination who are rehabilitated at the Dubai Center for Child Development of the Authority, most notably the frequent “withdrawal” cases.
The director of the center, Maysoon Al-Khafaji, told Emirates Today that the challenges facing the integration team are being dealt with with solutions that can eventually overcome them, stressing that more than 90% of the children currently enrolled in the center, who are able to enroll in educational institutions, have been Integrate them either socially in nursery school or educationally in school classrooms.
Al-Khafaji stressed that “integration” is a universal human right, which includes all people, regardless of race, gender, disability, and the nature of medical or other needs, and that it provides equal access without barriers to everyone in society, stressing cooperation with the Knowledge Authority in Dubai, for the success of integration plans.
A special education specialist, Rina Saeed, gave a detailed explanation of the academic integration methodology followed by the center, stressing that there are legislative, legal, humanitarian, social and ethical reasons to ensure commitment to implementing integration plans, working towards their success, and overcoming obstacles.
Four main challenges were identified to be dealt with by the team, to ensure the success of the integration process, including the difficulty of retaining teachers who are trained by the center on how to teach a child of determination like his peers, as this requires finding mechanisms to ensure the child’s interaction and effective participation in educational and classroom activities. While the trained teacher frequently withdraws, due to moving to work in another school, or leaving the field altogether.
And she added that among the challenges is the withdrawal of shadow teachers as well, and their refusal to continue providing support to the child, after they have been trained, and that an entire semester has passed in the academic year, which causes a dilemma for the teacher who relies on the help of the shadow teacher.
She stated that incentives are often used to encourage shadow teachers to continue working with the child, or to reduce their working hours to encourage them to continue cooperating and working with the teacher.
She stated that one of the most important challenges, too, is the bilingualism of children living in Dubai. Its negative effects are evident when the parents decide to teach the child in a school whose language is different from the language he is fluent in.
As for the fourth challenge, it relates to the difference of viewpoints between the teacher and the specialist responsible for implementing the rehabilitation and integration program, noting that “this does not happen often, but it occurs sometimes … causing negative consequences for the integration process.”
And she added that scientific studies and research have proven that the process of integrating children, regardless of their cognitive levels and educational abilities, is one of the applications that support school success for all children, whether they are with disabilities, or children with typical development.
And she considered that “this is due to the fact that when a teacher is trained to educate and qualify children of all levels, it ensures that the teacher can deal with any challenge or difficulty that exists in the classroom and in the teaching process,” noting that “good schools are like good societies and good families.” It celebrates and cherishes diversity and inclusion, because it is the right path towards a successful society whose members enjoy self-confidence, because each of them has a role to play, and guaranteed rights that make him feel of his value and belonging to society.
Challenges include the withdrawal of trained shadow teachers to move to other schools… or leave the field altogether.
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