IDA Global Partners

KUWAIT

Centre for Child Evaluation & Teaching (CCET)    IDA Sustaining Global Partner
Mr. Raed Alwehaib, Assistant Director
Ms. Abir Sharhan, Assistant Director
Telephone:  009 651 832 000
Fax:   009 652 5358 914
Email:   r.wehaib@ccetkuwait.org
www.ccetkuwait.org

The Center for Child Evaluation & Teaching (CCET) is a non-profit organization registered in Kuwait since 1984. It started out in Shuwaikh, close to the sea-front, and it transferred to new headquarters in Al Surra at the beginning of the academic year 2006-2007. This dynamic organization, which offers diagnostic and remedial services to children with learning difficulties in addition to training and awareness activities, has come a long way.

Initially, CCET offered assessment services with psychologists and educational specialists, after which a program of intervention could be drawn up and used by the child’s school. Extra tuition, on a one-to-one basis, was offered in the evenings after school. It soon became apparent that there was a considerable demand for a Morning Program offering intervention programs, and the Morning Program started in 1994.

The Ministry of Education collaborated with CCET to establish the Morning Program with CCET training the Ministry of Education’s teachers who, in turn, gained valuable exposure and awareness about learning difficulties. It was never intended that the Morning Program should keep the children all the way through their education, but merely to work with them to remediate their difficulties and teach them learning strategies. Some returned to the mainstream schooling system after a year; while others spent two or more years in the Morning Program.

Kuwait Dyslexia Association
Mohammad Y. Al Qatami. Chairman
Al Omariya, Block 4.
Al Omariya Street, Bldg 4. 
P.O. Box: 766 Farwaniya 81018 Kuwait
Telephone: +965 24757986. 24757984
Fax: +965 24757908
E-mail: contact@q8da.com 
www.q8da.com

In its relatively short history, Kuwait Dyslexia Association (KDA) has managed to move from strength to strength, building on the good reputation it has sought to establish as a local, national and regional association which represents people with dyslexia in Kuwait and the rest of the Arab World.

The KDA was officially opened in 2000 and has since been actively involved in working with governmental and non-governmental organisations in Kuwait to achieve its mission: i.e., to provide help, advice and support to individuals with dyslexia and their families within the Kuwaiti and Arab societies in order to overcome difficulties and challenges often associated with dyslexia. Until March 2005, the KDA was the only dyslexia association in the Arab World, a group of 22 countries situated mainly in the Middle East.  

The vision and hard work of its founder and current chairman, Mr. Mohammad Yousef Al Qatami, a parent of a dyslexic, paid dividends when he managed to involve the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Planning and the United Nations Development Programme in Kuwait to support a two year survey study of dyslexia in Kuwait where over 5000 Kuwaiti children from primary schools were tested. 

In 2002, the study revealed that the percentage of dyslexics in Kuwait is 6.29% of the total number of students attending mainstream government schools in Kuwait. The survey study was a corner stone in the short history of the KDA, as it stressed the fact that setting up a single school or a centre to cater for the needs of individuals with dyslexia in Kuwait might not be the best strategic option to tackle a problem of that magnitude. Being mindful of challenges and emboldened by the backing of the Ministry of Education, the KDA started to implement a tough plan of action to achieve its mission and to become a leading dyslexia service provider inside Kuwait and across the Arab World.

The KDA Plan of Action outlined the general framework within which KDA can conduct its various diverse activities within Kuwait while acknowledging the specific goals related to the nature of the Kuwaiti and Arabic society and the specific linguistic features of written and spoken Arabic as the working language and the language of instruction within Kuwait and across the Arab World.

The KDA Plan of Action: 

1.  Develop Policies and Legislation for the acknowledgement, identification, support, intervention and treatment of dyslexics.
   
2. Conduct Research & Publications on dyslexia to serve the Kuwaiti society and the rest of the Arab World.
   
3. Raise Public Awareness of dyslexia in Kuwait.
   
4. Establish Public Services for providing help and support for dyslexics in Kuwait.
   
5. Set up Networking with advocacy groups within Kuwait, across the Arab World and internationally.
   
6.  Establish a Specialised Dyslexia Library.
   
7.   Organise Conferences & Seminars.
   
8.  Offer Degrees & Short Courses.
   
9.  Develop Resources; e.g., particularly cognitive tests, check lists, screening tools, ICT software, etc to assist Arabic speaking dyslexics and other relevant individuals to provide the appropriate support for dyslexics.
   
10. Encourage and Assist establishing other Dyslexia Association to set up other advocacy groups and charitable organisations across the Arab.

While working hard to implement its Plan of Action, the KDA has witnessed some very impressive successes. Being aware of the lack of standardised tools in Arabic for dyslexia screening and assessment, the KDA facilitated the Arabization of a computer-based dyslexia screening and assessment tool so as to overcome the problem of dyslexia screening in Arabic and the lack of qualified professionals to carry out the screening and the assessment of dyslexia in Arabic.  

The KDA has also been liaising with the British Dyslexia Association and has launched its own Dyslexia Friendly Schools Initiative which is backed by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education and the UNESCO regional committee in Kuwait. The KDA is currently liaising with the University of Kuwait to offer short courses as well as undergraduate and postgraduate courses on dyslexia in Kuwait.

The KDA has also conducted 8 training courses so far in both English and Arabic for dyslexia. Moreover, the KDA has managed to build its own specialised library, which currently contains over 600 titles on dyslexia in both English and Arabic. The KDA is currently working on developing a Multi-sensory Teaching Programme in Arabic.
    
The understanding and support of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education to the work and the mission of the KDA has been instrumental since the start. However, this help and support has recently been given an extra boost with the ministerial decree (445/ dated August 3rd 2005) to set up a Dyslexia High Committee in Mainstream Government Schools in Kuwait, which is upgrading the type, level and scale of support offered to individuals with dyslexia in Kuwait to an all time high.