Unique Abu Dhabi learning disability centre will close if it doesn’t find Dh1 million, founder says

The Taleem Centre deals with childlren that mainstream education cannot but each child costs up to Dh40,000 per year to teach.

Zaid Al Jaberi, 11, an Emirati student who has learning difficulties, with his Arabic teacher Alaa Shatnawi at the Taleem Centre. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

ABU DHABI // A centre that has supported more than 1,000 children with learning difficulties may be forced to close because of a lack of funds.

Shereen Jassem founded the non-profit Taleem Centre for Training and Skills Development to help children who were turned away or expelled from mainstream schools.

But it could close its doors within months if more funding cannot be found.

“It breaks my heart to be turning away all the parents that come to us for help but I can no longer sustain the costs,” Ms Jassem said.

She opened the centre in 2014 with her own money after her dyslexic son was described as lazy by his teachers when he performed poorly in classes.

Some children are sponsored to attend and classes cost Dh300 each, with discounts and instalment plans available, but costs are running high.

Each child costs the centre, which employs 11 specialists, up to Dh40,000 a year.

“I had hoped that the Government or education authorities would fund this business, and I’ve gone to them for help because this is a public service and there is nothing like it in the UAE,” said Ms Jassem.

“I appreciate their support in referring students to me and recognising our services, but what we need is sponsorship and funding.

“I wanted to sustain this but it will need up to Dh1 million to keep it running and I can no longer afford it.”

She said she had pleaded with hundreds of private and public schools to readmit children who had been labelled as “stupid” or “trouble makers”, and were expelled or refused admission. Many had conditions that had been wrongly diagnosed as autism.

She has held on to her government job, hoping that she can keep the Muroor Road centre afloat until a better long-term option is presented.

One problem the centre has is that schools too quickly abandon children without understanding the cause of their disruptive behaviour.

Official statistics say 10 per cent of pupils have learning difficulties, she said.

“From my experience and the number of students I see from different schools, I can guarantee you that the number is much higher,” Ms Jassem said. “In every school there are no less than 100 students with learning difficulties.”

Up to four new pupils register a day at Taleem, some from as far as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and the Abu Dhabi Education Council refers dozens of children each year.

So far it has helped more than 1,000 children with learning difficulties, which in most cases had been misdiagnosed as autism.

“Many of our students are dyslexic or suffer from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder,” Ms Jassem said. “We don’t accept students with autism or Down syndrome because they aren’t our specialties.

“We specialise in helping students who have average and sometimes above-average intelligence but need a special kind of training to be able to catch up with their peers,” said Ms Jassem, who opened Taleem after.

“I’ve had a parent who told me that her son threatened to kill her and held a knife to her neck. He was so angry and frustrated at school because he couldn’t read, was failing his studies and his friends made fun of him.

“So he started becoming aggressive to everyone. Others resort to drugs.”

Moneeb Al Qudah said he resigned from his job as a teacher in a private school and joined Taleem after seeing the number of children with learning difficulties.

“In every class, I had at least four or five students with learning difficulties,” Mr Al Qudah said. “Those students would always be causing trouble or sleeping in class.

“It’s not because they have a behavioural problem, but because they had difficulty understanding the material due to a disability such as dyslexia.”

He said that when he told the school for which he worked that these pupils needed special attention, he was ignored.

“As teachers we are all instructed to pass all students because the school’s aim is to profit and these students have paid the fees,” Mr Al Qudah said.

“It was very disturbing and frustrating for me to see them pass every year and the problem was only getting worse.”

Up to 40 per cent of pupils at Taleem are teenagers who are in Grades 7, 8 and 9 but almost all of them are at Grade 1 level, although they are improving.

“I had wanted to open a branch in the Western Region and Al Ain because most of my students are from there,” Ms Jassem said.

“Now it looks like I won’t be able to do any of that.”