October 10 2004
Indian School Molada Parents Harassed by Talmiz Ahmed
School authorities were not available for comment
MUSCAT - Parents of Indian Schools in Oman are up in arms against the outgoing Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmed and the school management committee under his patronage for harassing parents who have protested against a fees hike plan by trapping them in police cases A number of parents who spoke to KM said the school management committee and the ambassador in his capacity as the patron are not even listening to their grievances and follow dictatorial methods to silence poor parents who cannot afford to pay excess fee.
"Due to localisation, many ordinary parents of Indian schools are finding it difficult to pay fees regularly. There are 15 Indian schools in Oman, which follows CBSE syllabus. The Indian Ambassador is in charge of the board of directors governing these Indian schools and each year the board members are nominated as per the whims and fancies of the ambassador and business people linked to him," they said in a statement. "Nepotism and corruption is rampant in the functioning of these institutions, to which democratic elections are never conducted. Even though India is a democratic country, such public institutions are not functioning according to democratic principles. The worst situation facing parents and students of Indian school Mulada in Oman is self revealing," it added.
"Due to the nepotism and inefficiency of the school management committee, a special position of a dean (academic)) was formed and a person who will serve the vested interest of certain groups was appointed. While the principal was sacked, the dean academic is appointed as the school principal," the statement added. "Since the school has huge surplus fund between RO100000 to RO 12500000, the school gave a concession to parents from paying the monthly fees for the two month vacation period of June July. It was a great relief to ordinary parents who are burdened with the heavy fees charged by Indian schools in Oman. It may be recalled that the former patron, K.M.Meena tried his level best to ameliorate the condition of ordinary parents by asking various school managements to reduce fees and non fees burden.
However, he was prematurely transferred from Muscat and in his place Talmiz Ahmed, the new ambassador was brought. One of the specific missions of Talmis Ahmed has been to reverse various reforms introduced by K M Meena and increase the burden on parents. His avowed mission has been to help the private school lobby to retain their hold on Indian schools and make huge profit. "This year the school management and the Indian embassy are insisting that parents pay fees for the vacation period too. Many Indian schools charge parents for the vacation period when their students are not attending schools," it added. The surplus fund with the school is raised from parents through fees and the Indian school rules in Oman stipulate that they must work on the basis of no-profit, not loss basis. In addition, the school has stopped admitting students to KG classes. "Even though 90 per cent of the parents have demanded the restoration of these facilities - non payment of fees during the two months' vacation period, resuming KG classes - and submitted a complaint to the school management committee, the board of governors, the Indian Ambassador and the Ministry of Education," it said.
"Even though a complaint was lodged on May 15, 2004 the embassy or the school management refused to convene a parent teacher meeting. With the appointment of a new principal, services of more than 15 experienced teachers have been terminated," parents complained. "Now there are no teachers to tech some subjects. Depending on the availability of teachers, students are forced to take different third languages like French and Arabic. Some of the seventh class students don't have much knowledge of the third language and according to CBSE norms, promotion to the eighth standard is done only after the student successfully completes the third language test in the seventh standard," parents alleged. The parents gave another complaint to the embassy and others on 12th August 2004 but they refused to meet parents or discuss the issue. Instead of solving the problems raised by majority of parents, the Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmed the school patron has instructed parents through the school committee to either remit fees by 26 September 2004 or suspend students for non payment of fees. On 26th September, the principal called more than 50 students who did not pay the fees and harassed them psychologically, it is alleged. He has also advised them not to attend class from next day onwards without paying the vacation fees.
"The Indian embassy officials refused to heed the public demand of 100 parents of Indian school Molada who have traveled more than 200 kms to attend the so called open house organized in the Indian Embassy according to the directives of E.Ahmed, the new minister of state for external affairs. This education business conducted with the embassy support is adversely affecting the future of many students," they added.
It may be recalled that the former ambassador tried to introduce democratic norms in the school administration by restricting the tenure of school management committees. However, the committees which are supposed to be refreshed after two years is completing four years and there is no plan to change its members. Some of the school management committee members are not parents. "The embassy and the school management have made it a policy to harass parents who raise such issues by trapping them in police cases. Some of the parents are thinking of resorting to strikes and other means to press for their genuine demands," parents said in a written statement.
DM receives Tejari award for third time
Director General of Dubai Municipality, Qassim Sultan, said that the civic body is keen to continue its efforts towards electronic trade in order to accomplish different commercial transactions. He said this step will coincide with the constant developments witnessed by the city of Dubai and will be supporting the government’s plan for the e-government.Sultan also praised the big role played by Tejari.com in setting up a support base for e-market for exchanging online trade between commercial establishments, companies and organizations.
He said that it has become easy for interaction and conversation for conducting deals and accomplishing business and save a lot on expenditure and thereby get more profits. “We now get more opportunities for accessing new markets, all this with full control over provision and supply. Dubai Municipality support Tejari.com according to its keenness for developing its online commercial transactions,” Sultan said.
He noted that the Municipality is keen to transform its transactions and it sincerely believes that there is a necessity for positive partnership with different categories of the society.
“Dubai Municipality has tried to educate and encourage suppliers to join Tejari.com for an effective impact in the purchasing procedures and take online biddings. In order to achieve this the Purchasing Section has conducted 29 educational and orientation seminars at the Municipality Staff Club explaining the peculiarities of Tejari system. In these seminars conducted in co-ordination with Tejari.com, 1800 suppliers, who are in the list of registered suppliers of the Municipality’s Purchasing Section, participated,” said Sultan.
He said this on the occasion of Dubai Municipality receiving, for a third consecutive year, the Tejari award for the most successful department in conducting campaigns to encourage them to join Tejari system.
The award was presented to Dubai Municipality by Sheikha Lubna Al Qassimi, CEO, Tejari.com on Tuesday at the Tejari stall at the GITEX 2004 in the World Trade Centre. The award was received by Eng. Essa Al Maidour, Director of Contracts and Purchasing Department in the presence of Tareq Al Khaja, Head of Purchasing Section and Ismail Kazim, Head of Purchasing Unit.
The Municipality received the award thanks to the relentless efforts of the Purchasing Section in spreading the culture of e- transaction through Tejari portal and encouraging the suppliers to join Tejari.com. The section conducted a number of seminars explaining the advantages of using e-transactions. A good number of major suppliers attended these seminars.
It is worth mentioning that Dubai Municipality had received last year the award for being the best among the local government departments for achieving the highest percentage of biddings through Tejari portal. Before last year the Municipality received the award for the best government department for getting the largest number of suppliers registered with Tejari. Until August 2004, the Municipality has achieved the feat of getting a total of 4,600 biddings through Tejari.com and the number of suppliers who registered with the Tejari portal rose to 750.
The Contracts and Purchasing Department is keen to increase the number of e-transactions which is considered to be a part of the strategy and vision of the Government of Dubai in order to implement the e-Government in different government departments. It is also considered to be part of the vision and strategy of Dubai Municipality to enhance its work and transform from traditional to modern electronic methods that saves time and expenditure and reduces the work pressure. It has a big positive impact in rendering excellent purchasing service to all its customers, internal as well as external.
