HSBC Bank Oman and the British Council launch special education needs training workshops across the Sultanate

In association with the Ministry of Education, HSBC Bank Oman S.A.O.G. and the British Council welcomed a specialist from the United Kingdom (UK), Marie Delaney, to deliver a series of Special Education Needs (SEN) training workshops to teachers across a number of the Sultanate’s government schools in Batinah South and North, Dakhliya and Muscat. Delaney’s visit aims to strengthen the skills of more than 120 teachers and supervisors, along with 30 local SEN educators, who have already participated in the SEN online training programmes that took place between December 2014 and January 2015.

The face-to-face training workshops provided additional SEN guidance in the areas of classroom behaviour as a mode of communication, education and mental health with an emphasis on Dyslexia and Autism Spectrum Disorders, in addition to the motivation of gifted students to drive high-level achievement. The first of these workshops took place in the training centres of Nizwa, Rustaq, Sohar and finally in Muscat, at Al Mahana School in Wilayat Baushar.

“As part of HSBC Bank Oman’s corporate sustainability objectives, we remain committed to supporting educational initiatives like this that add real value to teachers and benefit a substantial number of intellectually challenged students,” said Andrew Long, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bank Oman. “Helping young people reach their potential has always been at the top of the Bank’s community centred initiatives and by investing in educational partnerships such as this with the British Council, we can commit time, money and resources to make a long term positive contribution to the communities we serve.”

Research into mental health as a barrier in education has been undertaken in recent years by the Directorate of Research & Studies at the Ministry of Health, and the Department of Behavioural Medicine at Sultan Qaboos University. The investigations undertaken to date note a severe lack of identification and treatment of mental health disorders, which is now recognized as a key challenge in the educational sector.

Paul Hilder, Country Director of the British Council in Oman, commented: “The British Council is honoured to have been involved in this initiative in collaboration with HSBC Bank Oman and the Ministry of Education. Over 5,000 students across the country are set to benefit from this Special Educational Needs training for teachers, and we look forward to supporting further work in this important area.”

Teachers receiving the SEN training were carefully selected by the Ministry of Education to take part, with staff from the SEN department also invited, which represented the first of its kind online training programme to be held in Oman. Feedback from all the teachers involved was extremely positive.