DAMMAM, 4 November — The Ministry of Education recently reaffirmed its policy of holding elections among the parents to constitute management committees to run foreign schools in the Kingdom.
Accordingly, new management committees have been elected for Bangladesh and Philippine international schools in the Eastern Province. The remaining schools are now expected to hold the vote after Ramadan.
The Bangladesh community elected Shahid Ahmad, who has been linked to the school affairs since its start, as chairman of the school board for a third term. And most community members believe the school has been functioning smoothly under his leadership.
Elections to International Indian School in Dammam are long overdue as the Indian schools in Riyadh and Jeddah are being run by elected parent bodies.
Contenders to the Dammam school board have already launched indirect campaigns in the hope that the elections will be held very soon, especially after the recent ministry announcement. Many individuals and community groups are actively taking interest in the school affairs in recent days.
Recently, a cultural group put up a small board mentioning the name of an individual who funded the construction of a canopy near the school’s main gate. The board was removed following severe criticism, but the school acknowledged the contribution in its newsletter. Parents ask that if that canopy were so important for the students, why the school itself did not build the facility even though sufficient funds were available.
They claim that the timing of the project shows that it was part of a campaign to enlist parents’ support in the school elections.
Many community members have raised eyebrows at a statement some time ago by Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad who insisted that the embassy will retain its role in running the community schools. However, many of them have since changed their position and now say that the embassy must play a distinct role in the school matters as in the case of every other issue concerning the community.
Some of them, however, argue that the embassy’s role has to be within defined parameters and should be of an advisory nature. Embassy officials should not interfere in the day-to-day functioning of the school, they say, citing the postponement of the inter-school competition, or Cluster Meet, which was originally scheduled to take place at the Jeddah school due to a "very whimsical stand of an embassy official".
There is no denying the fact that the embassy officials have been treating the schools as "another bureaucratic outfit."
Many parents also criticize the embassy for allowing school premises for other purposes.
The embassy’s consular team which visits the Eastern Province every week uses the school facilities and sets up its office there for two days in a week. The embassy pays only a token rent whereas in the past it used to pay huge sums to lease hotel rooms for the purpose.
