Learning Disabilities Programmes

Another group of students who miss out on help and support in the schools in East Jerusalem are students with learning disabilities. This is because most teachers and school staff have no knowledge of how to address these students’ needs. Students who suffer from learning disabilities are not necessarily mentally or academically impaired; in fact some are potentially higher achievers than their classmates. It is just the method by which information is communicated to and by these students that makes the difference. Most teachers do not understand this and hence those students are labelled as weak students and are marginalised in class. These students are subsequently treated harshly by their teachers and rejected by their fellow classmates. This leaves them with a sense of failure and inability to learn. Hijazi (2012) found that one of the main reasons why students drop out of school is because of their feeling incapable of learning.

Many students have undiagnosed learning disabilities and some of these students suffer from social problems and neglect. However, since teachers are not trained to detect learning

161 disabilities (some teachers interviewed did not even understand the concept of learning disability), they stigmatise these students. Students at Awqaf, UNWA and Private Schools suffer the most in this area. Municipal schools have a programme for students with learning disabilities, where students get diagnosed and are offered treatment. In the cases where students need special education, they can be referred to municipal schools that offer this type of education. However, due to limited funding, this programme is not very strong and so this group of students remains marginalised and neglected in some schools. Alayan and Yair (2009) in their study of education in Jerusalem have also noted this problem. They found that there were significant gaps between Israeli Jews and Palestinians, in terms of the school hours per student, allocated for special education.

Over the past few years, the Palestinian Ministry of Education has expressed interest in this matter. It has provided training courses for teachers on how to diagnose students with learning disabilities. However, the suggested intervention by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and the Directorate of Education in Jerusalem is not enough. Most teachers do not know how to deal with students with learning disabilities and most diagnoses do not provide the adequate information about the learning disability and how to overcome it. In fact, most diagnoses describe it as only an academic problem. They do not have a comprehensive programme for diagnosing and treating students, and therefore there are cases of students in 7th and 8th grades who suffer from illiteracy. Those students are usually stigmatised and called “lazy” or “stupid” by their teachers and classmates.

“Some students in my class are at a lower mental level, so they don’t understand anything, but yet they keep them in class. They disturb the whole lesson and affect the whole class, by disturbing the students around them and so cause chaos in class” (Biology Teacher, AC Awqaf

School)

Three of the parents interviewed had children with learning disabilities and they felt that their children suffered the most in school. They complained that the teachers were not trained to teach their children.

162 “Now my son has a learning disability. The problem is not with the teacher; the problem is that

there was never someone at school to detect his problem. In Awqaf schools we do not have these people. Academia is not the only important thing. I mean if the boy has a problem, so how can he do well in school? The teachers do not know about these conditions, so you need a specialist to detect them. The teachers should be taught how to deal with students who have problems; they need to detect if a student has an issue about a certain thing. They then need to call the parents and tell them how to help their child” (Mother, High School Graduate, Unemployed)

“My son is a slow learner and definitely has a problem, but he does not get any support from school. I keep telling the school counsellor about it and he says I will talk to the teachers, but he never does. The other day the English teacher said to my son go and find yourself another teacher I do not want you in my class” (Mother, 8th grade, Unemployed,)

“There needs to be a programme for weak students, programmes to help those students. We feel that there is a weakness in English, maths and Arabic. You see the student reaches the secondary level but he does not know the basics. In other schools, there are counsellors that work with students at the psychological level and they help them, but here (Awqaf schools) they never do”

(Mother, High School Graduate, Unemployed)

In UNRWA schools they face the same problem. The teachers complained that they have many cases of students with learning disabilities in their classes and they are not getting the needed support. Students do not get diagnosed and the teachers do not get the needed training to work with them. According to Mohan Menon, Deputy Director, UNESCO-UNRWA Education Programme, the low achievement levels of UNRWA students in the TIMSS21 exam could be related to students having special needs, but not being diagnosed and not getting the needed support (Menon, 2010:4). Menon (2010:4) states that “it is quite possible that students who performed very poorly on the tests may if they underwent appropriate diagnostic testing be classified as students with Special Educational Needs (SEN). If this is indeed the case, then it would suggest that these students are not being adequately supported and that more appropriate

21 _{An international assessment of the mathematics and science knowledge of fourth grade and eighth grade students} around the world.

163 strategies need to be found, so as to ensure that students with SEN are better supported, so that they can acquire literacy and numeracy skills”.

“Many students at this school suffer from disabilities and some are very weak and need special help from different institutions. I cannot give those students the care they need. I have forty students in my class and I do not have time for individual students. I never received any training from people who know about this topic and I did not study education, so how can I know?”

(English Teacher SB UNRWA School)

“I have around five weak students in my class. I don’t know what their problem is; if it’s a mental one or if they are just neglected children. They have given us a course about dyslexia, but still those students need someone specialised to work with them and help them. I have lots of students in my class and I teach them all the subjects. This means that I have a lot of work and so I cannot focus on the students with learning disabilities. I am also required to finish the curriculum on time and that puts me under pressure” (First Grade Teacher at B UNRWA

School)

“The teachers at this school cannot differentiate between learning disabilities and just weak achievers. This is the problem” (Arabic Teacher, Shufat Boys Primary school, UNRWA)

“Some girls, in the class I teach, have learning problems and they don’t seem to understand anything. Even if we work with them and the parents work with them, it is hopeless. We don’t have people specialised in such problems to help those students and tell us what their problems are and how to deal with them” (First Grade Teacher at B UNRWA).

Only one of the private schools interviewed offers programmes for students with learning disabilities. The rest had similar problems to Awqaf and UNRWA, as they did not have any special programmes for these students or a resource room, and the teaching staff lacked the knowledge to work with such students. Therefore, they are neglected in the school and are allowed to pass from one grade to the other, without acquiring basic numerical and literacy skills.

“We have a programme for students with learning disabilities. It’s developing quickly, as we have at least 5 people working on it. We start diagnosing students from KG2 and we have

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specialists who have degrees in the topic. We have lots of cases of students with learning disabilities; we are diagnosing them at an early age. Our work is making a difference and so it’s crucial that these programmes get the needed support and funding in the schools. This programme and also the counselling programme can solve many problems and create a healthier and pleasanter school environment. Some students who have a learning disability problem feel lost in class and so they start disturbing the lesson and then it escalates and they start having behavioural problems. So when we help the child, this changes the whole environment in class, because students with problems can affect the whole class” (Principal at F

Private School)

As in all the other areas, schools in West Jerusalem are much more advanced and well resourced. The principals interviewed in Israeli Municipal schools said that they have special programmes for students with learning disabilities. There are at least two counsellors in every school, resource rooms and in some schools two teachers for one class.

“The Israeli Ministry of Education has several programmes for children with learning disabilities and difficulties. In all the schools we have a resource room, where children get special tutors to support them and those teachers are specialised in Special Education. The children are given extra time and are diagnosed and treated, based on their diagnosis. Afterwards, in the final exams at the school, when they do the Bagrut, there is a committee in the (Israeli) Ministry of Education that arranges for them to get different terms; there is somebody to read the text for them, or somebody to rewrite what they have written, because some of them can’t write, so there are different methods used for testing them and special learning techniques to teach them how to overcome their difficulties” (Hava Bar Tour, Director of Secondary

Education at Manchi)

“We have all kinds of help for the students with learning disabilities and we train our teachers to help them. We have a Learning Centre for after school, where the pupils can drop in and get help with their homework, and in seventh grade we have three different help programmes for the students. We also have two school counsellors to support the students” (Principal at E Religious

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“We asked the municipality to help us in this; students do theater, art or work with the computers. Twice a week they can come and learn whatever they want but they have to commit to their choice. They have cooking also. They choose two programs and stick to them. Also, we have Seminar Hakabutzim, it is like a university where they take student who finish and train them for five years, to come back and help us change the school. We also have two teachers in the class and the class is divided into two, where the teachers give the students all the support they need” (Principal at G Secular Municipal School)

“For every level there is a counsellor and the teachers send the students to the counsellor and they diagnose the problem and then we help them. They get different treatment and a different exam. In every grade, I think about 25% of the students have learning disabilities. This is not a big problem, as we are here to help them and support them” (Principal at H Secular Municipal

School)

“We have, in this school, three counsellors, two psychologists and one social worker to help the students. We have special teachers that take the students out of the classroom, twice a week, and they give them special training. We have people also who give them therapy, by means of classes in art, dance or drama. All these programmes are funded by the municipality” (Principal at Z

Secular Municipal School)

“We have students who have dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and two or three students who have difficulties hearing or reading, so they have special learning facilities and they get the needed support when taking tests. In every level, we have one class for Special Education and there the teachers are trained in Special Education, but we also have training for all our teachers to deal with learning disabilities” (Principal at MG Secular Municipal School).

“We have 5 classes for students with Autism and we have special programmes for the students with Special Needs, we also have three counsellors who are doing a good job” (Principal at M

166 There is a huge gap between the services provided for Palestinian students with special needs, and Israeli students with special needs. At Palestinian schools there are hardly any resource rooms to serve those students, because of the lack of space. Not all the schools have the skilled human resource experts, or the programmes to diagnose or treat those students. Therefore, those students and their families are left alone to deal with this issue. In many cases this causes students to drop out of school and give up on education.