JEDDAH, 22 October 2003 — The faculty and staff of the International Philippine School in Alkhobar (IPSA) are threatening to stage a “sit-in” to protest the alleged mismanagement of the school by its Governing Board, Arab News learned yesterday.
A group of teachers and parents, in a telephone interview, accused the board, among other things, of causing the reduction of their already minimal salaries and late payment of their overtime pay, making their lives more difficult.
And while the school had a surplus of SR278,000 from the last schoolyear, the Board want the graduating high school students to pay for gasoline expenses to take the University of the Philippines College Admission Test, or UPCAT, in Riyadh.
“The parents of these graduating students are furious because of this,” said one of the teachers.
The board’s “unnecessary interference” in the school’s academic affairs has reportedly resulted in the resignation of acting principal Virginia Villanueva. She was not immediately available for comment.
Villanueva, ironically, was hand-picked by the board to replace Dr. Erna Yuson, whose services were terminated by the board early this year despite the objection of a majority of the parents, the teachers told Arab News.
IPSA’s parents have been fighting their war via the Internet over the past months. Some of them said the termination of Yuson, IPSA’s principal for 8 years, was unfortunate because during her term the school had seen remarkable progress academically. In the past school-year, IPSA had the most number of high school graduates passing the UPCAT. The UPCAT is often seen as a gauge in the quality of Philippine high schools.
IPSA board chairman Edison Plandez categorically denied the accusations. In a phone interview yesterday, he said:”These are all fabrication meant to besmirch my reputation and the competence of the whole board.”
On the surplus funds, Plandez only said that the matter had been clarified and discussed among the faculty, staff and parents. He denied any information on the reported resignation of Villanueva. “If that is true, I still have to hear a word from her,” Plandez said.
Plandez also denied downgrading the teachers’ salaries. “We are in fact upgrading the salaries commensurate with their teaching performance,” he said.
On the gasoline issue, Plandez said the students themselves voluntarily agreed to shoulder gas expenses as they were taking entrance examinations for either the UP or University of Santo Tomas (UST). “If the school subsidizes these students, it will be unfair to other grade levels,” he said.
