Report by: P A Hameed Padubidri, Riyadh
Daijiworld Media Network—Riyadh (CN)
Riyadh, Jun 8: With the Taqwa International School (TIS) in Riyadh staying closed for an indefinite period since three weeks, many students and parents are worried by the evasive answers given by the school management.
Parents were notified that the present school campus (Exit 30) would be shifted to another place and the new campus would be operational within a few days. After a week of the notice, the parents received another phonic text message notifying them that the school will remain closed until further notice. Two weeks have passed since and there is no any indication of the school reopening.
TIS, which has an Indian CBSE-affiliated syllabus, is situated in a rented building just away from the Indian International (Girls) School at Hai-al-Taqwa at Exit 30 in Riyadh. There are a lot of Indian and non-Indian expatriate students studying in the school.
It is impossible to conduct classes in the old building as everything is being moved and the new proposed building is not conducive to conducting classes as the construction is still underway.
The school has informed that due to some reasons, the attempt to shift of the campus was begun early of this year. The short vacation before the beginning of the new academic year was also expected to be prolonged due to the shifting process. However, the school reopened in the same building as per schedule in the early week of April although there were interruptions of classes twice after that. New admissions and other formalities were already done and the school was in session till the third week of May.
When this correspondent contacted Dr Anwar Bachcha, the new TIS principal, he said, “Every effort is being made by us and we are waiting for the approval/clearance from the Saudi Ministry of Education to conduct classes on the new campus. Since I am new here, I cannot give more details than this.”
He promised a week ago that the classes would resume within a week. But, his promise was in vain. Separate management and parents’ meetings and teacher-parent meetings were also held to discuss the situation. However, these efforts were not successful in reducing the anxieties and tensions that encircled the minds of students and parents.
When Daijiworld talked to TIS chairman Rizwan about this, he said, “We are not in a position to give you an exact date for resumption of classes as we failed to fulfill our promises a couple of times. We are working day and night to get all the infrastructural and administrative work done as per the instructions of the MoE. MoE officials will visit the campus for inspection once it is complete and we hope that approval will be given to operate the new campus.” When he was asked as to how they would make up for missed, he said that proper steps are being taken to address the matter.
Parents are wondering how the management could be totally oblivious of the prerequisites to be met when setting up new premises. Some parents are even contemplating moving their children to a different school.