JEDDAH, 18 June — In an effort to improve the quality of education at the Bangladesh International School (English section) its newly elected governing board has adopted a set of guidelines for its three-year term. “My team’s style of management will be guided by honesty, sincerity, patience and cooperation,” Chairman of the five-member board Kazi Salim Ullah told Arab News.
“All our efforts will be directed toward improving the school environment and educational standard, as well as promoting teacher-student and teacher-parent relations,” said Ullah who heads the board by virtue of getting a maximum of 154 votes in the election held at the weekend.
Mansoor Ghazali, director of foreign education at the Ministry of Education, and one of his assistants supervised the election, which also had the presence of three observers — Neamat Ullah Bhuiyan, consul and head of the chancery at the Consulate General of Bangladesh, and Sebgat Ullah and Mohammed Abdul Halim, both nominees of parents.
Neamat Ullah, who works as an engineering specialist in Saudi Arabian Airlines, said: “The school had a bad record in the past two and a half years when four principals or vice principals were changed and most of its best teachers left. There were also allegations of financial irregularity.”
The new board will formally assume charge by June-end, after the ongoing annual examinations. “Meanwhile, the new members will comply with the ministry’s requirement that they have no political links,” Neamat Ullah said.
Nearly 200 out of 265 parents voted in the election. Those who did not vote were either fee defaulters or absentees, said Neamat Ullah who also headed the schools’ first governing body in 1998-99.
The others elected are Abdur Rouf Bhuiyan, an accountant who was chosen for the fourth time with 133 votes, Mostafizur Rahman Choudhury, an operations manager, and Mohammed Zakir Hossain and Abdul Quddus Choudhury, both finance managers. Bhuiyan, a founder member of the school, which was established in 1993, has been in charge of the school finance in the outgoing board.
According to the ministry’s new rules, the size of the governing body is limited to five members in the case of an international school having less than 1,000 students and to seven members for schools with more students.
