New scheme to nip delinquency in the bud

Social workers plan to nip potential problems in the bud by visiting schools with a high number of juvenile delinquents.

“This is a project that we have been working on and hope to introduce next year,” said Waleed Al Abri, principal of Al Mafraq Juvenile Education Care Centre.

“We have annual statistics from all the schools in the emirate with the number of juvenile delinquents admitted into our facility and crime committed. When we realise that there is a trend or an alarming number at a specific school, I usually alert the principal.”

Beginning next year, efforts will become more intensive and social workers will be involved.

“We all have to cooperate. Social workers will be asked to hold private sessions with the student and the school to conduct awareness programmes for students,” Mr Al Abri said. The sessions will be conducted privately and anonymously.

No young person has been arrested because of a crime committed on school premises.

“Usually the problem is dealt with in-house by the management who have their own procedures,” Mr Al Abri said.

The Education Care Centre is accredited by the Abu Dhabi Education Council and was established to ensure that young people in detention continue their education. There are 20 teachers, teaching primary and secondary levels.

Because each student has a different educational level, the centre has halls rather than classrooms, six on each of the two floors. Students move between halls according to their level.

The halls are designed like traditional classrooms with wooden desks, a large whiteboard and a computer. The walls are covered in artwork – paintings, pottery and murals.

“This is all the work of the students and made out of recycled material. We don’t buy anything. The pottery we make at the school,” Mr Abri says, for all the world like a proud parent.

He points to the handle on a mould of a traditional door. “Look at this. This door handle was made out of a cassette. It was melted and moulded into shape.”

As part of their coursework, students are required to participate in a project. “They do many different things like candles, kites, assembling computers,” Mr Abri says.

“You would be surprised how talented some of these students are. In the right environment, their talents come out. Maybe while they were on the outside they didn’t have that kind of talent.”

Young people take their scheduled school exams at the centre. “Even those who come to us at Al Mafraq and have dropped out of school have to continue their education during their time here,” Mr Abri says.

After their release, Mr Al Abri ensures that they go back to school and continue their education.

“If the student was registered at a private school and drops out because his family couldn’t afford to pay the school fees, we gather money and everyone chips in to make sure that student goes back to that same school he was registered at. It’s sort of like a charity and something we do among each other at the centre.

“We want these students to continue as they were and don’t want to put them in a school with lower school fees.”