Indian School Board to introduce New Rules based on Parents Survey

Indian School Patron may seek nominations from parents outside self-nomination'

Five members of Indian School Darsait may leave

 

(click below for earlier school reports)

keralamonitor.com March 6, 2002.

Indian School Patron may seek nominations from parents outside self-nomination'

Board asked to submit all self-nomination applications to the patron.

Various Indian schools in Oman are getting ready to receive new Management Committee (MC) members to replace old ones who have exceeded their term as committee members. Even though the board of Indian schools had asked parents to submit "self-nominations' in a special form directly to the board office in Muscat, not many parents came forward with self nominations. It is learned that the patron may not fully endorse the self-nomination exercise initiated by the former board, which is totally restructured now. In the light of the new developments and board revision, it is likely that the patron would even consider nominations from outside this list. Even though considerable political pressure was exerted from New Delhi on the Indian Ambassador K.M.Meena, he seems to be firm in his mission to improve the functioning of Indian schools as far as possible for the betterment of common parents.

"The patron need not accept self-nominations of parents selected by the board of directors as school committee members. He has asked the board and school MCs to submit their own 'preference list' for MC membership," revealed sources. It is also learned that the patron has asked them to produce all self-nomination forms received from parents so that he himself can make a judgment to bring efficient and qualified people for managing the schools. However, this may not be applicable in the case of private schools.

Even though about 20,000 students are studying in 14 Indian schools, not many parents have made self-nominations, a process started two years back. Parents were reluctant to respond to the board's appeal because their previous experience with the self-nomination process was not satisfactory. Due to fear psychosis, lack of language support and a sceptical attitude towards school activities, many common parents kept away from making self-nominations to school committees. The former board took a hasty decision to seek parent nominations when the patron was conducting a direct survey among parents about various aspects of school functioning. When the former board termed the patron's survey among parents as 'unwanted interference", the Ambassador put his foot down and sacked many board members.

It is learned that the patron, the Indian Ambassador, is working in cooperation with the new board of directors to fill the emerging vacancies and ensure smooth functioning of Indian schools. Even though restructuring the previous Indian school board was a Herculean task for Meena who faced formidable opposition from different quarters, there is a feeling that things are not going ahead as per his wishes. Even though the new board has assumed office a few months back, no major action is taken to ensure transparent and smooth functioning of schools in an affordable manner to common parents. "The new board is behaving like Indian opposition party leaders, who assume power in mid term elections. Before coming to power, they promise many things. But once in the hot seat of power, things are back to square one,' said one commentator. "Except that the smiling photographs of some of the new board members inaugurating the school annual day or sports meet have started appearing in the newspapers, nobody can notice any major change," added sources.

Even though some of the board members sincerely wish some changes for the better, others are apparently not in favour of any swift action due to unknown reasons. While there may not be any change in the fees structure for leading Indian schools in the capital region, some token changes may be introduced in the interior schools. The patron would like to see individual schools being managed by qualified and enthusiastic parents.

It may be recalled that a few months after the new Indian Ambassador took charge as the Indian school patron and the media exposure about some alleged mismanagement in Indian schools, many of the old board members have resigned and a new board headed by a new chairman assumed office. However, there was not much change in the composition of management committee of individual schools. Except suspending the Management Committee of Indian School Molada, there was no major change in the composition of other Indian school management committees.

The root cause of corruption and mismanagement is the decade old outdated systems and practices that nurture vested interests, affecting the entire system from top to bottom. It is futile to believe that by replacing the board members or the school committee members, there will be a change in the functioning of schools. It is learned that some of the corrupt practices in schools are masterminded by people employed at lower level. There are instances where new school accountants were asked by "certain people" to sign on dotted lines of inflated bills and invoices. (keralamonitor.com)