First ‘special needs for merger’ school

By: Mahmoud Hafez, Mona Ismail and Mohamed Zein Eddin

The June 30 Group, an affiliate of the Ministry of Education, has announced that it will open the first school for students with special needs for merger.

The school will start operating next academic year 2022-2023.

Minister of Education and Technical Education Tarek Shawki said the new school, which will be equipped according to the latest global and academic specifications, will offer students their right to a learning environment suited to their needs.

The facility will have specialised teachers and psychologists and social workers in keeping with the highest international standards, the minister added.

The concept behind this new school is closer to an integrated educational academy, to serve as a hub for all June 30 schools, he said.

Merger students will be accepted, initially to qualify them for the June 30 Group’s schools, the minister said.

Head of the June 30 Group, Hesham Gafaar said that they will first start with discovering the students  who to join the under-construction merger school.

Before joining the June 30 schools, the children will be subjected to a behavioural and psychological assessment to decide if they need rehabilitation, he said. In this way, problems are detected and handled  early, before a child mixes with healthy peers, Gafar explained.

Specialist in merger affairs Hala Ghoneim, who will be in charge of the new school, said children will undergo a period of behavioural and cognitive preparation before joining any of the June 30 schools.

This will be followed by a partial merger period, then full merger, she explained.