By P K Abdul Ghafour
Jeddah, Apr 14 (Arab News): A large number of Indian parents as well as community organizations have strongly opposed the move by the International Indian School in Jeddah (IISJ) to hike fees by up to 45 percent, saying the IISJ's unilateral decision without consulting parents was totally unacceptable.
Parents in Dammam and Riyadh have also protested similar fee hikes in Indian schools in the two cities.
Principal Syed Masood Ahmed said in a circular the IISJ was increasing fees from April to mobilize funds required for expanding and upgrading infrastructure facilities. He said the school was able to admit only 1,600 students from 3,900 new applicants due to lack of facilities. He estimated the cost of building new school premises at SR70 million. There are more than 10,600 students in the school.
“The IISJ is a community school. It was built with the support of Indian community. How can they increase fees exorbitantly without the permission of parents and the community? It's totally unacceptable,” said K.T.A. Muneer of the Indian Overseas Cultural Congress (IOCC).
He said the IISJ measure would put more burden on Indian parents who are already under financial pressure due to increasing prices of essential commodities and house rents. Many Indian parents have decided to send their children back home due to the increase in school fees, the IOCC said in a statement.
IOCC’s Dammam chapter has presented a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling for his intervention to withdraw the hike imposed by the higher board without considering the interests of the community.
The IOCC, which is an offshoot of India's ruling Congress Party, said the school would be able to increase salaries of teachers and other staff by 17 percent without hiking fees if it had followed stringent fiscal discipline.
If they hike the fees by just SR10 they can increase staff salaries by 24 percent, the IOCC statement claimed.
The organization also pointed out that the school increased the fees without giving an audited report of its annual revenues and expenditures.
M.S. Karimuddin, a higher board member, said the board took the decision to increase fees after discussing all aspects and problems of the 10 Indian schools in Saudi Arabia. “Twenty-one members were involved in this decision and you shall agree that all these 21 people are not fools or enemies of the community,” he said, emphasizing that a fee increase was necessary to provide raises to teachers.
“Since I took over as a higher board member about 10 months back, 31 teachers have resigned and I have signed their checks for the end-of-service benefits. These teachers left after they were offered by private schools double the salary given by the IISJ. The only reason our teachers are resigning is that they were paid very low salaries for a very long period of time,” said Karimuddin, who has been associated with the IISJ for 28 years.
The IOCC presented a memorandum to Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna when he visited Jeddah recently to pressure IISJ authorities to revise the fee increases. “We have taken measures to take up the issue in the Indian Parliament with the support of Keralite MPs,” Muneer said.
The India Fraternity Forum has presented another memorandum to Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, along with 10,000 signatures collected from parents and the public demanding the cancellation of the fee increases. It called for the formation of a committee consisting of parents and teachers to find ways to mobilize funds for the premises development.
Mohideen Sirajuddin of Jeddah Tamil Sangam also urged school authorities to reduce the fee increases. He said his organization was ready to accept a 10 to 15 percent hike. “When we met Principal Masood he asked us to bring our proposals. We’ll meet him next week and hope to reach an amicable agreement,” he said.