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School plans centre for special needs students at its campus in Silicon Oasis

DUBAI — Indian High School (IHS) plans to open a centre for students, expatriates and nationals, with learning difficulties at its new campus at the Dubai Silicon Oasis with the aid of the Rashid Paediatric Centre.

The new centre, set to be ready by 2010, will address the needs of children with dyslexia, autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, slow learners and students suffering from other learning disorders.

The move follows a memorandum of understanding inked between the RPC and IHS to partner in exchanging technical know-how to establish the centre on its new campus.

Ashok Kumar, CEO and Principal of Indian High School, told Khaleej Times: "The centre can initially accommodate some 30 students. The centre will have two sections in total and we can admit more children in the future. The children can take some classes with children from the mainstream schools, depending on their needs."

The centre will also admit all other categories of students, who, with a little support, could be educated at their own pace.

As per the MoU signed between RPC and the school, the former will assist in establishing the special needs centre, conducting psychological tests for identifying students with learning disorders, training teachers and parents on the challenges of training students with learning disorders, helping in identifying and developing teaching aids, assisting in recruiting staff for the centre, and training the staff of the special needs centre.

Recently, Mohan Valrani, Honorary chairman of IHS, and Ashok Kumar, visited the RPC. Director of the centre, Mariam Oathman, gave them an insight into the centre's operations.

Oathman said, "Children of our centre belong to a special world where things are more challenging and much more difficult than it is with normal children."

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