JUBAIL, 29 May 2005 — The Indian community in Jubail is indignant over the apathy of the Indian Embassy toward the International Indian School here and said that the ambassador and the school coordinator at the embassy have been ignoring the school for a long time.
The Indian ambassador is the ex-officio patron of all the Indian schools in Saudi Arabia, and an embassy official is coordinator for the schools. The debate over the role of the embassy started over the issue of school’s annual day function and the ambassador’s inability to attend it.
The school management has been trying to get a date from the ambassador, M.O.H. Farook, since February and the ambassador’s office has allegedly refused to make a commitment. Instead the embassy notified the school that the ambassador would be available to chair the function only in June. The school authorities informed the embassy that the academic session ends in June and, therefore, the annual function must be held before that.
“It is really strange that the ambassador has such a tight schedule that he cannot spare a day for the school,” said one angry parent. The school management eventually informed the embassy that since the function had to be held in the current academic session, they were going to host the function in May. The embassy once again expressed regret and said that the ambassador would not be available.
In desperation, the school management eventually decided to invite a visiting Indian minister to be the chief guest, but could not do so. The management then invited the first secretary at the embassy, Ananta Krishna, who is also coordinator of the Indian schools. Krishna,, who was in Dammam to supervise the school elections, gave the school management a terse reply: “ I will try”, leaving the management with no clear answer.
Meanwhile, the school annual day will now be held on May 30 evening, of course without ambassador or the coordinator.