Plans afoot to replace members from Indian school boards Plans afoot to replace members from Indian school boards Pay Rs 50,000 (as bribe), become a teacher Courtesy; The Oman Daily Observer October 27, 2001 Headline news Indian schools set for reforms By V M Sathish MUSCAT — In line with Oman's drive to improve transparency and accountability, the concerned Indian school authorities have started a reform process.The Indian Ambassador who is the patron of Indian schools in Oman is studying the functioning of various Indian schools in view of a number of complaints received from parents and other quarters about the allegedly high fees structure and lack of financial transparency in some of the schools. Following complaints that some members of the Board of Governors and Management Committees, have exceeded their normal term, steps are being taken by the new Indian Ambassador K M Meena to restructure the boards by incorporating more members from the parents. A senior member of the Indian School Darsait has already resigned from the post and other schools are likely to follow suit. The reform process may also affect the outdated financial reporting system followed by schools.Responding to questions raised by the Observer regarding the functioning of some of the Indian schools, authorities admitted that there are some major problems which need to be resolved in the larger interest of the Indian community. Sources revealed that some of the school committee members are not representing the parents. Sanjiv Kohli, First Secretary who has been in charge of the Indian school, has said that the Patron of Schools is addressing such complaints. 'There are certain schools where board members have exceeded the stipulated term of six years. These are being currently looked into by the mission. It would be our effort to ensure that the maximum possible membership is drawn from the parent community itself,' a written statement from the patron's office said."Members of the board are nominated by the Patron of Indian schools. These nominations have been done by successive ambassadors on the basis of their judgment of a person's ability, experience and willingness to contribute towards matters relating to community's welfare. Members of the board as well as the individual committees are initially appointed for two years and are entitled to two more terms of two years each. In exceptional cases, the patron is empowered to grant a fourth term also," said the statement dated 8 October, 2001. It is learned that some members are remaining in office for ten to 15 years! He said that according to the constitution Indian community schools in Oman are supposed to be working as non-commercial entities. "There are 14 Indian schools in Oman, including four in the capital which operate within the broad guidelines laid down by the ministry of Education of Oman and in accordance with a constitution, an internal document prepared by the embassy to ensure the smooth functioning of these institutions," he said. Thousands of students are enrolled in these schools —Indian School Muscat, Indian School Wadi Kabir, Indian School, Darsait, Indian School Ghala are the four schools in Muscat. Other schools in the interior include the Indian School Molada, Indian School Sohar, Salalah, Ibri, Ibra and Nizwa. Omani educational rules, which govern the working of Indian Schools, have been introduced by the wise leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos to help ordinary students who cannot afford costly education. However, due to high fees charged by Indian schools, education is becoming too dear, said several Indian parents. "The constitution has the approval of the local authorities and there are provisions for amending it to suit the requirements of the community as also to safeguard the interests of the institutions concerned," the statement said 'The Embassy appoints a Board of Directors which is mandated to look at broad policy issues as well as matters of common interest to all the schools. Each school is looked after by a Management Committee, which is nominated by the Embassy in consultation with the board. The Embassy remains responsible to the local authorities for a trouble free functioning of Indian schools but refrains from interfering in day-to-day management of these institutions which are generally left to be dealt by the individual committee," it added. Despite high fees structure and large number of students, many of the schools are working on thin margins. The audited balance sheets produced by some of the schools indicate that they are surviving on interest earned from school fund. The official of a school in Muscat which charges RO 24 from 6000 students per month claimed that this year, there will be a deficit due to the sharp fall in interest rate! The school balance sheet for the year 2000 indicated a deficit, which was overcome due to interest earnings from the school funds. The story is not different for other schools. However, some smaller schools with about 500 students are running profitably even after charging about RO 15-RO 20 fees per month. About the financing part of 14 Indian schools. the concerned officials said that such schools work on the basic principle of balancing their costs and their respective management committees decide the fee structure accordingly. "The fee charged by the Indian schools compare favourably with those charged by other community schools. The schools also have a scheme of granting fee concession to deserving students and to the best of my knowledge there has been no hike in the tuition fee in various Indian schools in recent years. We would continue to ensure that the fee structure is decided on a rational basis, keeping in mind to the need for a viable functioning of the schools and the interests of the parents,' the statement said. The Patron has also promised that specific complaints about demanding bribe for recruiting teaching and non teaching staff would be examined. Some reports suggested that the school board members influence recruitment procedure of academic and nonacademic staff and charge money from the candidates. Questions are also raised about the manner in which auditing is done for some school accounts. However the school authority said: " The accounts are audited by an external auditor on a regular basis. We believe that these auditors need to do a professional job. We would be happy to look into these matters if specific complaints are brought to our notice,' he said. It is learned that one of the partners of the Board of Governors is involved in auditing the school accounts, which is apparently against the ethics of auditing profession. Even though the Patron has asked for the latest balance sheet from 14 schools, only two of them could produce it till the second week of October. "We are advised not to give balance sheet or any other documents about the functioning of our school to the press," said Dr Bhandari, president of Indian School Molada, when contacted by the Observer. It is learned that the school's accounts have not been audited for several years! The Memorandum of Understandings signed between the Indian Embassy and Indian promoters of the schools are not in the best interest of the students, parents or the community and need some re-examinations, added official sources. The new Patron of the Indian school has received complaints from parents and members of the Indian community about the abnormally high fees structure and other problems in the community schools. He is of the view that it is better that schools remain community schools rather than profit based entities run by individuals.The level of transparency in the schools needs much to be desired. Individually sponsored schools are more profit motivated and the school committee members are loyal to its business promoter who is promoting the school rather than keeping the larger interest of quality education in a manner beneficial to the community. "Management committee members of some of the schools are more loyal to the individual who is promoting it rather than to the Patron, representing the Indian community or to the parents.The new Patron of Indian schools is understood to be studying problems in various schools, especially those in the interior where there are major problems with auditing and financial transparency," said a senior official.