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SPRING/SUMMER 2020
A Duty: the Learning Support Program
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n a bid to meet the increasing demand for a comprehensive learning support program across the school for students with learning difficulties, IC administrators are expanding existing programs and introducing new ones. “Not everybody learns the same way,” said Paula Mufarrij, IC’s Vice President for Academic Affairs. “And students don’t always learn at the same pace. It is our duty to support our students until they reach a certain maturity level or until we bring them where they need to be.” The truth of the matter is that schools worldwide can no longer ignore the growing number of children with learning difficulties. Neither can IC, and so three years ago, a pilot project was implemented at the middle school to assess the need for such a program. (The elementary and preschool already had a learning support program established a few years earlier and are in the process of expanding it). The feedback was overwhelming. “We have identified many needs in our students, and we now know what we are facing,” said Mufarrij. “More and more parents are now asking for help.” According to a 2013 study by UNESCO, 2.43% of Lebanese youth (age 15-24) suffer from a learning difficulty. As Mufarrij explained, we are still at the ‘embryonic stage’ at IC. She, herself, saw
the agonies of one of her own relatives struggling through school because of a mild learning difficulty. It didn’t have to be this way. Mufarrij has been holding many meetings with directors about the need to expand the learning support program. All, she said, are crying out for more learning support instructors and more help for their students. It is a cry that the administration is taking seriously and currently brainstorming ways to expand the program best and reach as many students as possible. But at least, we took the first step, said Bahera Abbas, a learning support instructor at the Middle School. She and fellow instructors, Sanay Hamieh, are part of the pilot project initiated in 2017. Their job was to start a learning support center at the middle school. It was an overwhelming task. The idea was daunting to many faculty members and embarrassing to students. Parents, weighed down by the stigma of words like ADD or ADHD, timidly and yet with great relief, headed to the counselors. Will this mean that their child can stay and indeed thrive at IC? Yes, replied Abbas. Oh, yes, she said enthusiastically. All children can succeed with some help. All. That was the beginning. It wasn’t easy. Counselors persisted. It is ok to be
