DAMMAM, 10 May 2004 — The death of a student under the wheels of the school bus; departure of two managing committee members; controversy over the appointment of a new principal; dispute over the contractor for the new school building; and infighting among the elected members of the school managing committee — all these issues mean that the International Indian School in Dammam is on everybody’s lips.
With a strength of over 10,700 students, and over 600 teachers and support staff, it is one of the largest schools in the world to be functioning under one roof with one management.
The sheer size of the school is one of the reasons it seems embroiled in permanent controversy, with nearly all members of the Indian community entangled with one or the other interest group at the school.
The parents consider themselves shareholders in the school and many feel they should have a say in its day-to-day running. The result is that interference in the school is without parallel anywhere.
Critics say the Ministry of Education’s regulation making it mandatory for all community-run schools to have an elected managing committee added fuel to the problems. The committee elections provided an opportunity for ambitious Indians to turn the school into a political battleground.
The recent death of Muhammad Hamza, a student of class IV, in an accident, proved a catalyst to the controversies already raging. “The brutal death of little Hamza is a glaring example of mismanagement, total apathy and internal feuds,” according to Maqbool Ahmad from Hyderabad. “His death has exposed the inability of the school management to run such a massive outfit.”
Some parents believe that the present managing committee has lost its effectiveness since it shrank from seven to five members.
“It is a defunct body, embroiled in petty politics and regional biases. Every member has an ego clash with the other and as result school is suffering,” Murtuza Ali said.
Parents also say the school has grown out of proportion and that it is time to split it up into different sections. “For a seven-member board and one principal to manage 11,000 students and more than 600 teaching and other support staff is impossible. The school must be divided into three independent units,” said Syed Iftikhar Husain from Lucknow.
Parents suggest dividing the school into three sections: girls, boys and kindergarten and primary. “These three units should each have their own principal and managing committee,” said Rajesh of Karnataka.
However, in answer to the incessant griping some point out that the school has maintained the highest academic standards in the Kingdom against impossible odds.
