Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Wife of His Majesty the King and President of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW), patronised the opening ceremony of the new building of the Children’s Academy, in West Riffa. In a statement marking the occasion, she stressed keenness of the Kingdom of Bahrain to provide programmes and the needed services for people with special needs. She underlined keenness to protect their rights and raise social awareness of the need to integrate them in all life facets and boost their participation in building the community.
HRH Princess Sabeeka praised the efforts of the Children’s Academy whose Board of Trustees is chaired by Shaikh Hamad bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa. She pointed out the support given to the academy by its founder Shaikha Mouna Khalid Hamad Al Dusari and the educational and administrative authority to improve the academy’s educational output and better serve children with special needs. She affirmed the need to get informed about experiences in this respect to map out more effective strategies to help children to learn and tap on their creativity potentials.
Shaikha Mouna Khalid Hamad Al Dusari extended thanks to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for his unlimited support to the academy since its inception by allocating a land plot to set up the educational edifice. She also extended thanks to HRH Princess Sabeeka for patronising the celebration, lauding her unflinching support to the project and stressing that the opening of the academy’s new building has received the support of many government institutions like the Ministry of Education and the Labour Fund (Tamkeen). She pointed out that the academy’s cooperation with the British Alpha Plus Group has clearly contributed to developing its curricula to integrate children with special needs in education professionally.
The Children’s Academy is the first private school for children with special needs. It was opened in Riffa in September 2008 and offers education to children with special needs aged 4 to 16 years. The academy has internationally-accredited curricula and provides comprehensive medical services to treat speaking and behavioural problems. It is also seeking to add professional programmes for up to 23-year-old students to groom them to integrate in the labour market after graduating from the academy.