Six-year-old boy desperate to go to school but has been refused due to medical complaint

ABU DHABI // Khalifa cries every morning as he watches his eight siblings go to school.

Khalifa, 6, gets up early and grabs his backpack, which contains pencils and a notepad, and runs to the door.

Even his mother, who had no earlier education, leaves to go to school.

“I want to go,” screams Khalifa as his father reluctantly pulls him back.

“It breaks all our hearts to see him crying at the door and screaming that he wants to go to school,” Umm Khalifa said.

The Saudi boy was refused admission to several government schools because he was born with chronic lung diseases and has to be attached to an oxygen cylinder 24 hours a day.

Khalifa is on three different medications and has to have his oxygen levels monitored throughout the day.

“I went to several schools and they all said that they couldn’t accept him because he has special needs. They told me to go to a centre for special needs,” his mother said.

“Khalifa doesn’t have special needs. All he needs is a nurse or someone to watch over him.”

Home schooling is also not an option because both parents are barely literate and they cannot afford it.

“I came to the UAE more than 30 years ago and have settled here,” said Khalifa’s father, aged 60. “I do small jobs and sometimes go to Saudi Arabia to buy fabric and sell it here.”

The family lives in a two-bedroom extension of an Emirati relative’s house in new Al Shamkha.

“We are very poor and, if not for my aunt who gives us food and allows us to live here, we wouldn’t have been able to survive. But in spite of that all I care about is that my son goes to school. That is my dream,” Umm Khalifa said.

Khalifa’s doctor, who works at one of the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company centres, said: “Khalifa is an intelligent boy and needs to go to school to thrive.

“He isn’t considered special needs because he has no cognitive problems, so it’s unfair to put him in a school for children with such disabilities.

“He is a normal boy who needs to go to a regular school and be around children his age, make friends and do what other children do.”

She said going to a normal school would not be a risk to Khalifa.

“He just needs to be watched for his oxygen levels. Even healthy children get sick. Khalifa is no different than any other child.”

The family claimed that they visited the Abu Dhabi Education Council last year but nothing came of it.

“I was sent from one person to the other and asked to give Khalifa’s medical documents. I gave them the papers but they never contacted me again,” his mother said.

Umm Khalifa, who cannot read or write, did not remember to whom she gave the documents or to which department.

A spokesman for Adec’s P-12 special education needs section said: “The admission of children with special and or additional educational needs is supported by Adec schools.

“Children whose healthcare needs affect or have the potential to affect safe and optimal school attendance must have an individualised healthcare plan.

“The IHP shall be written by the registered school nurse, in collaboration with the pupil, family and healthcare providers.”

To date, the family has not had such a plan.

“The UAE has been so kind to us and the sheikhs support everyone without fail. I am sure they will help us,” Umm Khalifa said.

More school healthcare information is available at school.health@adec.ac.ae.

salnuwais@thenational.ae

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)

Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi

Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi

Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai

Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi

Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia

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- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.

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Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.

You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”

However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE

When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.