November 14, 2001   More Indian School Board Members Resign, Patron Firm on Reforms keralamonitor.com Muscat --Most of the members representing the business lobby in the board of directors of Indian Schools in Oman including the chairman Kiran Ashar have sent their resignation to the patron, the Indian Ambassador K.M. Meena today. Other board members who are learned to have resigned from the board include heavvy weights like Renjith Ved , Sreedharan, Pawan Malhotra, Mrs.Kamala Madhav Khimji and Kiran Ashar. Four members who were sacked by the Indian Ambassador two days back -Yeshpal Mehta, Vaikunt, Prem Maker and Mrs. Brigett Ganguly have also sent their resignation letter arguing that as per the school constittion the Patron has no right to terminate their nomination or suspend them. Out of 15 members in the board four members are the presidents of leading schools in Muscat -- have not resigned from the board. Two members representing the Indian School Ghala -Yousef Nalwala and Raiz (son of Kerala politician E.Ahmed), have not yet resigned from the board. The status of two members representing the proposed Indian School Seeb, Mr.George Mathew and Karanjith Singh, is also not known. The Ambassador will call a board meeting on Thursday and take necessary action to appoint new members. The Indian Amassador has already appointed four new members to the board. Now that the board is taking a confrontation strategy to prevent any changes in the working of Indian School against the growing public demand, the Ambassador is also firm to introduce changes. The business tycoons who have been serving the school boards for infinite number of years are reluctant to leave their position due to obvious reasons. Even though the public mood is to introduce drastic changes in the functioning of Indian schools, the existing board members with vested interests want to prolong the process and exert political pressure from New Delhi so that their control over the educational system is retained in one way or another.

Indian Ambassador suspends four bigwigs from the Indian School Board

K.M.Meena Vs. Kiran Asher

Muscat --For the first time in the two and half decade history of Indian schools in the Gulf, the Indian Ambassador in Oman has suspended four members from the Board of Directors of Indian Schools with immediate effect as a punishment for mismanagement and violation of school constitution. The suspended members include Yashpal Mehta, Vice-Chairman of the Board who was an aspiring board chairman after the retirement of Kiran Asher (the current Chairman) , Prem Maker, a business executive who has been at the helm of educational affairs for quite a long period. Mrs. Brigett Ganguly and Mr.Vaikunt, other leading Indian business executives are also thrown out from the board.

New Equations: Indian Ambassador with Sathish Nambiar.

The suspension is a proof that the new Indian Ambassador K.M. Meena has started to clean up the Agean Stable of Indian schools. Unlike all other previous Indian Ambassadors who used to be subservient to the business tycoons that dominate the Indian community schools, Meena has provied to be a thorn in the flesh for many powerful people. It is learned that the patron has thrown out four of the 13 member board because the constitution puts a ceiling on the maximum number of retirments in a given period of time. By altering the school management committees and school presidents, the Patron is likely to replace more board members. Many of the current school presidents are known to be favourites of vested business groups.

By restoring the supremacy of school constitution and the patron's power, the Ambassador has proved that the ultimate authority of 14 Indian schools rests with him. About 20,000 students are enrolled in 14 Indian schools in Oman. The new members appointed to the board include S.N.Thakkar, an Indian business executive Dr. Sathish Nambiar, Chairman of the Indian Social Club, R.N.Parekh, and Ajith Kumar, two senior executives. The power struggle between the the Indian Ambassador and the Board of Directors dominated by businesss tycoons has been intensified by a spare of circulars and counter circulors issued to parents about various aspects of school functioning. Some of the Board members including the current Chairman Kiran Asher have been remaining in office for several years after completing their term in office. According to the school constitution, the school patron appoints a board member for a two-year period, which is extendable on the Ambassador's discretion.

The Ambassador resorted to this bold decision when the board took an offensive posture against him and the media which exposed the poor state of affairs in Indian schools. The Board of Directors has been reluctant to introduce any reforms in the Indian schools or to reduce high school fees. Instead of cooperating with the patron, the board members questioned his constitutional authority to interfere in school matters. An "uncivilized" threatening letter written by the board proved to the proverbial last nail on its coffin.

Protesting against the patron's authority to conduct a direct survey among the parents, the board sent a nasty letter to the Embassy and the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi which was counterproductive. Due to the media coverage that the school controversy received, political contacts in New Delhi could not do much to preserve their chair in the board.

Financial mismanagement

A special brand of textiles is procured for school uniforms at an inflated from a textile showroom owned by one of the school board member. If the same clothe is procured from India or other shops, the cost would be much less.

Stationary, note books and text books are procured at inflated rate from companies owned by the senior board members.

School auditing has been conducted by BDO Patel & Company which is owned by Yeshpal Mehta, the outgoing board member.
The current chairman of the board of directors of Indian Schools is holding a British passport.