Ayat takes a seat at the back of the class and tries to distance herself from the other students who described her as “a troublemaker, rebellious, and stubborn” From the start, I noticed that she is aggressive towards other students, and I have made it my duty to minimize how much trouble she could cause. I would walk among students occasionally to check what they wrote in their notebooks, and I remember the first time I laid eyes on Ayat’s notebook, which she tried to hide from me. Her handwriting caught my attention; the words did not seem legible and looked more like a heart electrocardiogram (EKG) report. At the time, I did not know that what Ayat was suffering from was a learning difficulty known as dysgraphia.

Ayat did not have the opportunity to join the so called “special resources room” a dedicated space at school to assist students with learning difficulties. I tried hard to get her involved in the activities in order to change her behaviour and so she would become calmer and better able to deal with her peers, but I failed in my attempts because she was scared of being asked to write. I do not know what has become of Ayat today, but her story has prompted the search how adapted government schools in Jordan are to meet the needs of students with learning difficulties.

This is the story of thousands of students with learning difficulties that go unnoticed and that make their academic progress impossible due to the lack of necessary provisions to deal with their special needs.

This investigation is based on the experience of Huda Al-Hanayfeh, a fourth-grade teacher in Amman, in 2018.

Data from the Jordanian Ministry of Education reveal that the majority of schools are not ready to support students with learning difficulties. A survey of ninety schools from the three regions of Jordan confirms that “special resources rooms” lack the necessary provisions, thus depriving a big sector of students of the right to an adequate education. The investigation also reveals the lack of coordination, and absence of any proper allocation of responsibilities among the various educational authorities, which deprived some schools of essential provisions for more than three years.

Increased difficulties

Statistics for the academic year 2021-2022 by the Ministry of Education indicate that there are 19,735 male and female students who suffer from learning difficulties in Jordan, these students have been catered for through 1,070 out of 4,006 schools, though the actual number of students with learning difficulties may be much higher.

According a UNICEF report, the percentage of children with disabilities between the ages of five and seventeen in the Middle East and North Africa stands at 17%. According to the ten-year strategy for inclusive education for 2019-2029, issued by the Ministry of Education and the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Jordan, the percentage of students with disabilities who are enrolled in schools in Jordan is only 1.9%.

We met with the parents of Walid, Yasmin and Arqam, and their stories reflect the challenges faced by parents to access specialised educational support.

Walid (8 years old) troubles began years ago; his mother says that he was ready for schooling at the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, therefore he missed kindergarten.

She adds that her son is hyperactive, suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and he does not pronounce words correctly. He seems as distracted as any child his age, does not like to sit for long, loves running and playing, and prefers to accompany his grandfather to his workplace.

The government school, she says, obliged her to attend the classes of her son, sitting alongside him all day, which made her return home exhausted. She hopes she could enrol him in a private school or centre, but she cannot afford to pay 125 Dinars ($180) per month.

We met Yasmin in a classroom in a centre for children with learning difficulties in the eastern part of Amman. She was sitting next to her teacher. The teacher had placed some books in front of her and was reading some letters to her to be linked together to form a word. We asked what her name was, and moments of silence passed before she answered.

Her teacher instructs us to use short questions and to give her time to respond. We continue talking to her mother as Yasmin continued her lesson.

Yasmine had a resources room in her school but she never seemed to show any improvement until she was enrolled in the center where we met her, according to her mother.

Arqam was also enrolled in an expensive private centre, but he did not progress much academically. His father was able to meet the costs of the special needs centre because he worked there. Arqam was moved from a private centre, to a government school, and then to a private then government school again. His mother feels that he would not make any progress in the learning difficulties classes and only hopes he would be able at the end to pass the tenth grade, after which he would receive some vocational training.

Unequipped resource rooms

“It is not possible to bring the student from the classroom to the learning difficulties room and maintain the same traditional atmosphere, as this room should be highly equipped technically so as to engage the student.”

The Ministry of Education showed us a table explaining the “special resources rooms” needs in forty-two directorates, which helped the reporters get in touch with special needs teachers in more than one school, to gage the level of preparedness in Jordanian schools to deal with students with learning difficulties.

At a government school on the outskirts of the capital we were met by the teacher Bassim Mohammad who escorted us to a small room at the end of a narrow hallway. Bassem explained that the wooden partition that separates the room from the corridor was donated by a parent of a student with learning difficulties. Inside, there was a sign that read “Learning Disabilities Room,” which the teacher preferred to keep inside, so the students will not feel embarrassed.

The teacher had prepared the room himself, and was surprised when the administration issued an order to turn it into a normal classroom to deal with overcrowding at the school, “I lost a six by seven metres room, dedicated to students with learning difficulties.”

The status of the “special resources room” in a school in the southern region is slightly different. Its walls that did not exceed six square metres are decorated with colourful letters and shapes, and the floor shows printed jumping feet. The teacher, Jihan Al-Matarneh, stresses that all the preparations in the room were done through her own individual efforts and with the support of the school.

PHOTO

Caption: The special resources room prepared by teacher, Jihan Al-Matarneh, in a government school in the south

Al-Matarneh explains that the increasing number of students with learning difficulties prompted the principal to create a “special resources room”. She says, “At the request of the principal at the time, a storeroom extending from a corridor was converted into a resources room.” Al-Matarneh painted the room in bright colours and used the windows to hang educational boards. She also adapted some old furniture from the kindergarten, and the school provided desks, shelves and a kitchen cabinet.

Al-Matarneh confirms that the room lacked educational help material, explaining that she had “received thirty students until that number shrank to just over twenty in the following years as the room was very narrow, and the school had no free classrooms due to overcrowding.” Al-Matarneh did not limit herself to the narrow room, so she extended her work to the playground and used it for educational games.  

Al-Matarneh complains that special education teachers don’t receive professional development training, hoping that future training should include skills for diagnosing students including IQ tests.

A survey of ninety schools from three regions in the north, central and southern Jordan revealed several obstacles facing special needs resource rooms teachers and students alike.

Fifty-five special needs resource rooms, most of which are in the southern region lack basic equipment, such as a computer, printer, smart board and lockers for students. Sixteen of those rooms, more than half of which are in the governorates of the southern region, violate the technical specifications.

The Ministry of Education regulations state that rooms for students with learning difficulties must be like any classroom and should be safe, motivating and attached to the school. It should also be equipped with the necessary furniture and tools, such as desks, suitable seats, boards, mirrors and puppet theatres in addition to equipment, such as a computer, printer and a smart board. Its area should not be smaller than twenty-five square metres, and it is vital that the room be an equipped learning environment that enables students to benefit from various learning resources. It should also support them to overcome developmental and academic difficulties and acquire social communication skills.

The lack of clarity in roles delays the preparation of special resource rooms

Requests to make resource rooms available are supposed to be submitted to the directorate by the resource room teacher, then the directorate sends this to the Learning Difficulties Department. Next, this department addresses the Supplies Department in the ministry.

Three heads of public education confirmed that most schools do not have equipment or furniture to help students apart from what some received as part of the inclusive education project funded by Mercy Corps. These are fully equipped with the needs of special resource room teachers and students.

For the past four years at least, teachers have been filing inventory lists of material needed for resource rooms at the Directorate of Education who passes them on to the Ministry of Education, but no response has been ever received.

Special resources rooms are used as spare classroom capacity

“At the beginning of the second semester, some classes in the school building were damaged, and the first option was to take the special resources room for the use of second grade classes.”

In 2021, Ahlam who started working as a special education needs teacher in a government school says, “I started working in a school that had a special resources room, but the school building is very old and dilapidated, so the special room was moved to another building within the high school section. Imagine, I am a primary school teacher, and my classroom is in another building but we had to make the process work.”

Ahlam says, “The special resources room was bear with only one round table, a few chairs and drawers and you couldn’t even tell that it was a special resources room.” Ahlam decorated the class and equipped it. She prepared twenty-one student files whom she taught until some classrooms in the school collapsed. Ahlam explains: “At the beginning of the second semester, some classes in the school building collapsed and the first option was to take over the room where I taught to use it as a second-grade classroom.”

She points out that the school has around 300 students and needs at least two resource rooms. She denounced the fact that the school made do without the room despite the students’ urgent need for special education. Ahlam says, “If the special needs resources rooms were available, I could have easily had fifty special needs students.”

The survey goes to confirm Ahlam’s experience, as the special resources rooms have been replaced under various pretexts, such as opening a classroom for the first grade or resolving the problem of overcrowded classrooms in over forty schools.

Doctor Ahmad Al-Makahleh, a professor of special education at Al-Balqa Applied University sees the “special resources room” as an essential educational alternative and a right for students with learning difficulties “You can’t just say, give them a corner in the school or put them up anywhere,” he says.

Al-Makahleh points out the value of special equipments needed in these rooms and says that each child has a special learning style, some of them are auditory learners; others are visual; sensory or kinaesthetic. He stressed the importance of the availability of basic tools to support students with learning difficulties and pointed out that any shortage in tools would impact the learning process negatively.

Replacing classrooms or the lack of equipment were not the only problems facing teachers and students with learning difficulties; overcrowded classes exacerbated the issue. The survey revealed that students in sixteen schools were unable to join the resources rooms for this year. Teachers estimate the number of these students to be eighty-four.

Students with learning difficulties with no access to resources rooms 

The member of the Constitutional Court Doctor No’man Al-Khatib believes it is vital to re-examine and modernise Law No. (20) of 2017 on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to include more mandatory provisions for all authorities. This would allow people with disabilities to perform their work and ensure their effective integration into society.

Ghadir Al-Haris, Assistant Secretary-General for Technical Affairs at the Higher Council for Persons with Disabilities, confirms that students with learning difficulties are included within the articles of the aforementioned Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Al-Haris believes that it is the role of the Ministry of Education to ensure that classrooms conform with regulations. She adds that schools have been overcrowded since students have moved from private to government schools (due to worsening economic situation), and this may be a reason why special resource rooms have been repurposed.

According to the Educational Planning Department in Amman, the department resorts to using administrative rooms to solve problems related to overcrowded classrooms. The principal makes the decision to use the rooms temporarily, after receiving a written approval from the ministry. This however, conflicts with reports from three directorates about repurposing the use of special resource rooms without referring to the directorate or to the ministry.

A vicious circle

We went to the Department of Learning Difficulties and Speech and Language Disorders affiliated with the Directorate of Programs for Students with Disabilities at the Ministry of Education whose role includes planning, preparing, executing and evaluating educational programs for students with disabilities in addition to providing all necessary financial, technical and administrative support to carry these out. 

Doctor Mohammad Al-Rahamneh, the Director, stresses that the directorate is not responsible for equipping special resource rooms, and points to the Supplies Department responsibility to provide the required equipment.

Out of the equation

Walid’s learning journey could still be rescued, but that chance has faded for many students like Suad who attended a school in southern Amman.

Her teacher Nada Al-Sane’e says, “I have one to two students with learning difficulties like Suad in each section of the tenth grade. We came to know about them through reviewing their daily work, their notebooks, and exams.”

Al-Sane’e points out that she cannot help older students as at that stage, they will require specialists’ assistance, and stresses the importance of making the special resources learning program available from the first through to the tenth grade.

Khuloud Al-Khasawneh, a specialist in teaching students with learning difficulties at the National Centre affiliated with Princess Tharwat College, agrees with Al-Sane’, and explains that learning difficulties accompany the individual throughout life, but it is easier to treat it when it is discovered early, claiming that “those difficulties do not go away or disappear; they remain with the individual, so the sooner they are discovered, the sooner their severity would diminish.”

Al-Khasawneh believes that teachers are the core for a successful educational process if they are committed enough to help make the desired impact on students with learning difficulties. In the end, Al-Khasawneh admits, “I always say that a child with learning difficulties is lucky if he is born into a rich family and unlucky if he is born into a poor one and could not afford a private tutor.”