FRUSTRATION




This is a picture of Khaled on his graduation day from Arden College. Khaled was one of the first students i worked with and was fortunate enough to move to the UK and was therefore a given chance to go to college.

Everything I pushed for regarding rights and services for ASD children was always inspired by the parents and the circumstances of the students i work with. I started pushing for kindergartens to accept them because they were 3 and needed  social skills and peers to imitate. I pushed for schools to accept them simply because they got older. I started trying to know people in the Army because we needed Military exemption for the boys . Oddly enough we got them exempted from military due to having "flat foot" not due to being Autistic !!!!!! as this "diagnosis " was not on their "list of reasons for exemptions!!"

Anyway my point is this year I have a 12th grader who I'm sure will succeed if he is given a chance at college. Ahmed. My talented 'not so little' computer wizard. Now I have a new fight.
Ahmed has been working with me since he was four. He has been mainstreamed with a shadow teacher throughout in an American International school in Cairo. Two years ago the owner of the school decided he was not in the "mood" of having shadow teachers around so he decided to let Ahmed go. Since we were there based on personal efforts and not supported by solid laws we did not have much of a choice. Luckily Ahmed's mother knew someone in the Ministry of Education so he managed to "persuade" the owner to keep Ahmed.

Two weeks ago I approached the Vice President of The American University in Cairo (AUC) . He arranged a meeting  with the Dean, head of admissions, Counsellors, Head of disability unit and Faculty members to listen to my proposal. Naturally i wanted to mainstream ASD children at the AUC as many of them were mainstreamed in English speaking schools. After ALOT of back and forth discussion a decision was made that a pilot study would start in  September 2015.

Ahmed was going to get a chance……. well at least thats what we thought…..

The lovely owner of Ahmed's school decided that he did not want to contact the American College board (who are in charge of SATs) to get Ahmed accommodations such as extended time etc (his basic rights). His mother was actually told that no matter who tries to "persuade" him this time he will not do it.  So the reality of things was we did not know what to do to get Ahmed past SATs  and into a spot more or less saved for him at University. FRUSTRATION
Not only was this man going to stand in the way of Ahmed's future but also in the way of the pilot study and perhaps ruin the chance for any ASD student to later have access to AUC since we didn't now have anyone else ready for September….MORE FRUSTRATION.

I called Amid East and discussed it with them and they decided that the best bet was for The Egyptian Autistic society to apply to the College board as a place for future examinations of SATS for students with special needs.

This is where we are now. Response will come within 7 weeks until then we wait ……









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