What if going to work every day was like going home to be with your family? That’s how Nisha Thomas, director of the Special Care Centre, feels about her job. Abu Dhabi Week stopped by this school for students with special needs – and fell in love with some of the sweetest kids in town.

What brought you to the Special Care Centre?
I’m originally from Kerala in southern India, but I came to Abu Dhabi with my husband in 1994. I’ve been in special education from the very beginning of my career. I have a master’s in child development, a diploma in mental retardation and an MPhil in Special Education and Rehabilitation Services. I joined the Special Care Centre as a teacher but was promoted to Head of School after my first year.

What inspired you to initially go into the field of special education?
When I was studying for my master’s in child development, I had the opportunity to work with all the categories of special needs like students with hearing impairment, intellectual and cognitive impairment and visual impairment – because of that experience, I came to know the abilities of those students. For example, I was working with ladies who are visually impaired – I’d come in and even though they couldn’t see me, they would say “the teacher has come”. I was amazed.

What sort of children do you see at the Special Care Centre?
We have children with Down’s syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy and intellectual impairment plus some slow learners. Almost 14 nations are represented at the Special Care Centre such as India, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Algeria, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, France, Australia, Sudan, Somalia and Bangladesh. It’s a mixed group but all instruction is in English because of the diverse cultures. We don’t have the infrastructure to offer more than one language.

How is teaching these children different than teaching kids in a mainstream school?
We create an individual education programme (IEP) for each child that outlines goals depending on the ability of each child. We assess each child to insure the goals are not above or below the child’s level of performance. We have only ten students in one class so we know each child in and out, and every three months we have evaluations to update the programme.

How many students can the Special Care Centre currently accommodate?
We have 63 students now but another 128 are on the waiting list. We subsidise the school fees of most of the students – none of them pay more than AED 600 per month. The fees don’t cover the operational costs of the school so the centre is run mainly by the help from the community. We have six teachers and six teaching assistants, volunteers in each class and several therapists. We also offer art and other outside activities like karate, horse riding, pottery, swimming and other educational outings.

Tell us about the new location you’re building with the Donate a Brick campaign.
At the new facility that is coming to Bahia, we are planning to accommodate around 400 students and the new centre will have everything from the early intervention through adulthood so the child will go through the transition into the mainstream. With the help of God and the community, that location will be ready to open in 2012.

What do you like most about your job?
This is my passion so I don’t have much stress. Everyone at the Special Care Centre is like a family, and we learn so much working with these kids and their innocence – they don’t know jealousy or bitterness. When we see the smiles of these children and their successes, it’s our reward. It’s no small achievement.

Laura Fulton