JEDDAH, 21 December 2002 — A Saudi education official has stressed the need for the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Philippine Consulate General to work jointly to restore order at the troubled International Philippines School in Jeddah (IPSJ).
“We have no problem meeting with His Excellency the Consul General if that would help the school,” Mansour Ghazali, director for foreign education at the MOE, said in a phone interview with Arab News on Wednesday. He made the statement after his unsuccessful attempt on Tuesday to restore the school’s Board of Trustees (BOT), which was elected by parents in 1999.
Just after Ghazali left the IPSJ compound on Gornatah St. here in Jeddah., Consul General Kadatuan Usop arrived at the school and declared that the officials he had installed last month would remain.
In the latest of the power struggles to affect the biggest Filipino overseas school, the consulate-backed group led by Fidel Hernandez ousted the BOT chaired by Efren Rodriguez, which parents have accused of various misdeeds, including mismanagement, misappropriation of funds, nepotism and of overstaying their term of office.
Amid the power struggle, Usop intervened, citing an order by the Philippine government to “restore normalcy” before the rivalry turns violent.
Ghazali said the MOE does not recognize the takeover, which is against the rules set by the host government for foreign schools in the Kingdom. He said the MOE recognizes only the Rodriguez BOT.
In the interview on Wednesday, he said the Rodriguez board should be allowed to resume work at the school to pave the way for an election “three weeks from now.”
“We have to let the Rodriguez Board go back and make an accounting of the school’s resources to allow for a smooth transition,” he said.
Ghazali said in the forthcoming election, the members of the Rodriguez and the Hernandez Boards would be barred from running for office so that the other parents who qualify under the criteria set by the MOE and the school would be given a chance to lead.
In a meeting with the school’s faculty and parents on Tuesday and in an interview with Arab News, Usop was firm in saying that the Rodriguez board should not be allowed to reassume office because of the numerous irregularities they have allegedly committed.
Usop said the new management is auditing the school’s financial and other resources and that an election for a new Board would be held not later than Jan. 30.
On the issue raised by Usop that the MOE was applying a set of standard for the Philippine school that was different from the one applied to other foreign schools, Ghazali said the statement was inaccurate.
This involved the extension of the term of the Rodriguez BOT to three years, when the Board was elected for a one-year term.
Ghazali said there’s only one standard being followed, and this was set under a royal decree five years ago. He said every community school is enjoined to respect the decree, and that “no consulate should interfere at all.”
He assured the IPSJ community that the MOE’s only objective in intervening in the IPSJ mess is to “ensure good education and harmony and quietness of the school.”
