RIYADH, 11 December 2006 — In a major move to streamline the operations of 10 International Indian Schools of the Kingdom, the Indian Embassy has announced the reconstitution of the apex management panel by naming three members from among the community. Dr. Dilnawaz Romi, a social activist currently serving as physician for the Saudi royal family in Riyadh, has been named as the ambassador’s nominee to the higher education board. Dr. Romi has participated in a host of medical seminars and training programs in Saudi Arabia, India and the UK.
“Two other prominent Indian nationals — S.A. Abdul Malik from Jeddah and Satheesh Kini from Dammam — have also been nominated,” said Bishwadip Dey, second secretary at the embassy. According to Dey, who is also the embassy’s representative for the schools, “the board will be entrusted with the task of running the affairs of these big schools, which have a cumulative enrolment of 40,000 students.” “The operations of all the schools will be unified in terms of the distribution of textbooks at unified prices,” he added.
“The move to constitute the panel is important keeping in view the fact that these schools, in the past, have committed significant violations of financial and academic policies, which have eroded the community’s trust in the elected panels.” said Ansar Alam, a parent.
“There have been wrongdoings on every front during the last six years, in which elected members were involved,” said Alam. Hence, there are high expectations from the board now. According to the schools’ charter, the board, whose approval will be required for any expenditure exceeding SR20,000, will monitor the overall functioning of all schools. The board, which is also empowered to aid, advise and approve the disposal of any school property valued above SR10,000, will have many other rights including powers to hire or fire top school officials.
The Riyadh-based International Indian School alone, which reported growing deficits because of mismanagement in the past, has reduced its deficit by two million riyals in the current school session as per a circular. The situations in other schools have been the same, but improving.
Hence, the daunting task now before the 15-member board is to restore financial transparency and improve academic standards.
The board will be composed of the chairmen of the nominated committees of all the 10 schools besides a representative of the Saudi Ministry of Education and the embassy’s representative. The tenure of the three nominated members, whose names were announced yesterday, will be one year. The board is planning to invite some experts from India to run short-term intensive training sessions for hundreds of male and female teachers currently employed by these schools.
