Crisis in the life of an 11-year-old prodigy

At first glance, 11-year-old Rehman Oomer may seem like an ordinary child, who loves cricket and video games.
Behind the veneer of normality one can see a gifted young mind who just won an A* in math alongside teenagers older than him in his General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exams at Dubai College.
Rehman's mother, Pia Bahri, who is very proud of her son's achievement, said: "It's amazing, but it's frustrating, because you want to be able to give them everything and you don't necessarily have access to it."
Pia said that exceptional abilities of Rehman, who now attends Kings' School in Al Barsha, became apparent when Rehman was less than two years old.
"I realised that he had a good memory, but I just assumed that's what all children do," she said.
"But he could count to 100 when he was about 18 months. ...That's when we realised he had huge memory skills."
"Loads of people thought he might have some sort of special needs, or that he may be high-performing autistic." After having him tested, Pia was surprised to learn that Rehman tested 99.8 per cent on a test to determine whether he was gifted or in need of special needs programming.
"At age 4, he had the number memory of a 14-year old, and pattern recognition skills of a 16-year old," she noted.
"We thought he would do well (on the test) but an A* is really amazing. We still don't really know how far this goes. He could sit an A-level in a year's time."
"We're kind of at a crossroads. From what I've been told, in a year's time he's going to exhaust the teaching talent in the UAE, and then what happens?
"We've had to consider boarding school or moving abroad so he can get the support he needs," she added.
Pia added that her son has so far been unable to find an appropriate school programme. "What I want more than anything is to know if there is any way to figure out if there are resources here, and if so, how we can tap into those," she said.
She added, "I'm sure I'm not the only mum who has a child that has advanced abilities."
Rehman, born to parents of Indian-origin British citizens, credited the support he received from mentor Matthew Swifton for helping him get ready for the GCSE exam.
"He helped me to prepare. We went over all the topics, and we practised them. He gave me homework and lessons for me to do," Rehman said.
"I feel exhilarated that I did so well. I was really nervous. I'm happy with the way it turned out."
"Was I surprised? Yes and no. Yes, because this year was a very hard, and I was unsure about a few questions," he said.
Raised in the UAE since he was six months old, Rehman, said he noticed very early that he has a penchant for numbers.
"When I was like four, I was doing all these problems when everyone else find it hard," he said.
"I want to be a scientist and invent something, but at the same time I want to be a tennis player," he added.
bernd@khaleejtimes.com

Pia Bahri has made her son undergo tests to prove he is not autistic.