DUBAI // A majority of schools in Dubai lack the proper provisions to support children with special needs. Schools that do are oversubscribed or are unaffordable.
This year's annual education report by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, the private school regulator in the emirate, raises the concern of poor quality programmes for children with special needs in many schools.
"Leaders and school managers do not always have positive attitudes towards inclusion," the report said. "Many schools whose fees are in the mid and low range do not offer high quality provision."
Teachers are not trained to identify children with special needs according to the report.
"Too many schools claim they do not have any students with special educational needs. Pupils experiencing difficulties are often labelled 'slow learners' and given little support."
A significant number of teachers fail to adapt lessons for special needs pupils, and rely on low-level activities and repetition sessions that are ineffective.
Though all schools are required to enrol children with special education needs, the quality of programmes varies because there are no guidelines or training for teachers.
In 2009, the Ministry of Education launched the School for All handbook for state and private schools that lays out general rules for special education programmes and services. The guidelines are yet to be enforced in private schools.
The Dubai British School (DBS) is among the handful institutions that has set up a strong special needs support department.
Claire Hitchings, head of extended learning at DBS, said all teachers are considered teachers of children with special education needs.
"To help children who have special education needs, the school will adopt a graduated response...and brings specialist expertise to bear on the difficulties that child may be experiencing.
DBS, whose special needs support department received a high rating by school inspectors, assesses the child's current level of attainment through classroom assessments and an individualised education plan is developed.
The plan looks at short-term goals set for the child, teacher strategies and provisions that need to be put in place for assistance, including education psychologists and speech therapists. The school also runs staff development and training workshops to introduce effective methods in teaching children with special needs.
However, any additional special needs support comes at a huge additional cost to parents. A new fee framework announced by the Dubai education authority this year allows schools that score good marks in inspections to apply for a bigger increases if they offer special needs programmes.
aahmed@thenational.ae
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Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
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