Mohamed Al Emadi, Director General of Dubai Autism Center, called on the concerned authorities to allocate a budget for the education and rehabilitation of children with autism, as well as other students, regardless of the social status of the child's family. He stressed the need to adopt a unified curriculum for the rehabilitation and education of children with autism at the state level in government and private centers.

In detail, Al Emadi told Emirates Today that autistic children face several challenges, including that their families pay for their rehabilitation and education, while their regular counterparts receive free education in the schools of the Ministry of Education.This requires reconsideration to allocate a specific budget for the rehabilitation and education of these children. There is a law to cover the cost of treatment and rehabilitation of children with autism, and pay the salaries of specialists up to AED 50,000 per child, but it sets several conditions for the child to receive support, including to be a citizen of Dubai, and that his passport issued from Dubai, and be His family has income He pointed out that «this condition distinguishes between the child of autism and a normal student, as he does not consider the status of the latter's family, whether they are low-income or not, to receive free education in public schools, so support must include families who are also able, because the costs The rehabilitation of the child is large and continuous and beyond the means of any family financially ».

He added: «We need to provide statistics and data, to clarify the number of government centers available to accommodate children with autism, with the need to reveal a clear plan to build new centers if existing centers do not accommodate the existing number of children with autism, and define a unified policy for all UAE nationals in the absence of places Government centers, including cooperation between government and private centers, and ensure that the government covers the expenses of children belonging to private centers, so that students do not remain on the waiting lists to register in free centers of the government, because the delay in Treatment and rehabilitation is a burden on the family, financially and morally, in addition to the delay in the start of rehabilitation makes it less useful ».

He pointed out that «there are a number of private bodies support the Center through humanitarian charity and donations, in addition to some traders, but the continuation of this support is not guaranteed».

He pointed out that «operating costs are not limited to the process of rehabilitation of students and education, but includes the management of the center and operations of cleaning and security, maintenance operations, and salaries of the staff of 72 people, including 14 administrators, and therefore the operational cost exceeds the financial capabilities of the Center», he continued: We have another commercial building of the center that we are trying to rent, and we use the rental proceeds to support the center, but it does not meet a large part of the required amounts ».

Al-Emadi added: "We have resorted to the Waqf program, but no one has expressed its willingness to allocate a waqf to support the children of the center.

He said that the private sponsors will pay the maintenance expenses of the center annually, which will raise about one million and 200 thousand dirhams, and if another party sponsors health cards for employees, this will contribute 400 thousand dirhams, and if the national carriers to pay the staff tickets, this will contribute 400 thousand dirhams, which reduces The financial burden of the center is approximately 2 million dirhams. 'We addressed the airlines and applied for them to pay the employees' tickets annually, but we have not received a response from them, while His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman of Dubai Airports Corporation Top Total CEO Emirates Airline, the center of nine million dirhams personally ».

Al-Emadi stressed the need to adopt a unified curriculum for the rehabilitation and education of children with autism at the level of the state, whether in government or private centers, and that the curriculum within the licensing requirements given to the centers wishing to practice the profession of rehabilitation and education of children with autism, with a review of the centers and stand on their efficiency to apply the standards and curricula of rehabilitation The standardization of the curriculum promotes good qualification and education opportunities for this group.

AED 9 million annually

Mohammed Al Emadi confirmed that there are no students with autism on the waiting lists at the Dubai Autism Center, as was the case before moving to the new center building, pointing out that the center aims to reach the number of children to 90 students until the end of December.

He explained that the cost of rehabilitation and education per student in the year more than 100 thousand dirhams, divided into 60 thousand paid by the student, and 40 thousand borne by the Center, and the total value of the cost of qualifying the students of the center more than nine million dirhams.

50

One thousand dirham salary specialist

Rehabilitation and education of a child

Autism.