Over the last year I have watched many friends and neighbours leave Dubai due to layoffs and the economic pressures.
My family and I have been lucky enough to keep our jobs despite the crisis. However, we too are leaving Dubai and going back to our home to the US for another reason.
Over the past two years, my husband and I have watched our eight-year-old son be mistreated by his school and administration there.
This “well-respected” school approached us last year when he was in the first grade and told us that he had a learning disability.
They said this to us in a meeting without having done any formal assessments or tests or without even asking us to bring him to a doctor or psychologist.
Then they used fear tactics with us by telling us that he was on “probation” at the school and if he did not do well he would not be allowed to return the following year. They never once mentioned how they would help him or what we should do to try and help him.
Being the concerned parents we were, we took him to a psychologist in the States when we were on holidays and they did not find any problems with him.
When we presented the report to the school, they merely scoffed at us and still refused to back down.
For the remainder of the year they secluded him from the rest of the children during group work and told us he had behavioural problems... This year they have continued the same treatment and now have labelled him as having “ADHD” and social problems...
We have tried to find outside help here but have found there is nobody here that could help us with assessing our child or giving us any support.
Now we have had enough and our child hates school so much that we have made a decision to go home where we hope he can be a regular kid again.
I don’t know how these schools are allowed to get away with it and for those who have children with real problems I really feel for them...
Hoping for a better life
The Springs
Triple A, don't u think kids take it for granted that they are gonna get private tuitions?? u remove that option and watch them pay attention in class! i went through the same trouble in h.school..folks simply could not afford extra 600-900 bucks for private tuition. simple - u have to work harder to catch up with classmates (maybe 90%) of whom are going for these classes
Posted by: anonymous [04.Dec.09 2 : 55 AM]Join the club - my kids have moved school twice and all I can say its same wherever you go out here. No one seems to care about giving individual attention anymore and alot of them are just looking to keep student who will make their crappy teaching seem good by getting good grades from alot of homework. I have had to shell extra for classes outside the school to help my kids cope with lack of proper tuition in schools.
Posted by: anonymous [03.Dec.09 3 : 21 PM]Very sorry to hear on your plight but your are not an isolated case. I have friends who have been here since 1996 & they have had the exact same trouble as you. I'm even betting that this may be the same school as it was located next to Spinneys in the Meadows.I must pass this on to them for comment. There must be other people suffering like this where these schools expect every child to be an over achiever & are to lazy to spend the time to educate them despite being paid the exorbitant school fees. It's much easier it appears to give a child a label & walk away from their responsibility as educators... Shame on them..!
Posted by: anonymous [03.Dec.09 1 : 40 PM]I wish you all of the best when back in the US in finding a suitable school for your son. Unfortunately, such facilities are lacking here in the UAE, and those not empathetic to your pleas are the worst. Hopefully, your son is young enough to recover and enjoy school again.
Posted by: anonymous [03.Dec.09 12 : 39 PM]First and foremost believe in your child . My son , who's now 5 yrs old was diagonised with autism when he was 2 1/2 . I read the ook "the secret" which changed the way i looked at him...now he's a normal child going to a normal schoiol with normal ehaviors...its possile to change your child and the acceptance of people just y positive thinking . I did this...read the ook and follow it.....
Posted by: anonymous [03.Dec.09 11 : 01 AM]To fclark- can you please name one?
Posted by: anonymous [03.Dec.09 10 : 41 AM]Ever since childhood I always hated the schooling system in Dubai, starting with a school where i studied and was mistreated by the supervisor who was tossed by our father since he used to give us private tuitions and only taught us what was coming in the examinations, since he had access to the papers. Today what i am and stand for is all thanks to the local Dubai TV, which apparently showed plenty of documentaries and comedy series helping me improve my command over English language with a good accent rarely found amongst my classmates who finished their schooling where I didnt. Thanks Dubai TV.
Posted by: anonymous [03.Dec.09 9 : 43 AM]There are schools in Dubai who could help. Maybe your son sadly is not in the right one.
Posted by: anonymous [03.Dec.09 9 : 25 AM]I wish I knew what school he was going to as there is one I know very well, which have a great team of support within the school who could help.
Posted by: anonymous [03.Dec.09 9 : 15 AM]name and shame the school what have you got to loose.
Posted by: anonymous [03.Dec.09 7 : 33 AM]Get updates as they happen or daily, in your email inbox or your mobile phone, or both.
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