Special Report Agreement signed to Construct Building for Seeb Indian School
MUSCAT -The Indian School Seeb has entered into an agreement with a builder to construct a school building. The new building can accommodate minimum 1000 students in the first phase. At a time when the business tycoons and greedy NRIs are spreading baseless rumours about the future of Indian School Seeb to create panic among parents, the concerned authorities - School Management Committee and members of the board responsible for Seeb School operations - have already signed an agreement to construct the school building. "This is to reiterate our commitment to run Indian School Seeb as a community school." said the school sources. Whatever the local media say about the Indian Ambassador, K.M.Meena, nobody can dispute the fact that the successful running of Indian School Seeb is a proof that the school reform has been helpful to ordinary middle class and lower middle class parents.
It may be recalled that the Indian School Seeb was originally planned as a private school like Indian School Wadi Kabir and Indian School Al Ghurba due to an illegitimate agreement signed by the former Indian Ambassador Sadnam Singh with George Mathew, a Keralite businessman running a chartered accountancy firm. Despite all efforts by the business lobby with the help of a few politicians from Kerala, the current Indian Ambassador K.M.Meena did not allow private businessman to run the school because the experience of the Indian community with other private schools has been bitter. An Indian School which was started as a community school was hijacked by a businessman using an agreement that he had signed with the then Indian Ambassador Renjith Gupta. Now the original community school has the distinction of charging the highest fees by any Indian school in Oman. By making ISS as a community school, the patron has prevented such efforts to create a Second costly school in the area.
The Seeb School, which started as a community school after the patron revoked the Memorandum of Understanding between the private promoter and the then Ambassador Sadnam Singh, gave a new ray of hope to parents who found it difficult to send their children to far away schools in Muscat. The school in the nearby locality, the Indian School Al Ghubra, was not accessible to many ordinary parents due to high fee and restrictions on admission to only meritorious students. Proving all the doomsday predictions wrong, the school started in full swing and there was an exodus of students from other schools in Muscat, Mulada and Al Ghubra. However, the uncertainty about the board of directors and subotage bids by the business lobby resulted in a long delay in reaching an agreement with the private builder.
The original adhoc management committee for Seeb School, headed by the former ISM President, was not so keen to construct the building. According to sources, the committee wanted to remain in power for four years and manage the new Indian School Seeb. While the ISM president wanted to run both the schools, ISM and ISB, the patron did not encourage that tendency and formed a new school management committee. The former ISM President has been working in various school management committees/boards for more than 10 years.
After news spread about the imminent transfer of the Indian Ambassador, the business lobby has been spreading baseless rumours about the future of Indian School Seeb.The Ministry of Education has clearly mentioned that it cannot be a private school. The former ambassador did a major mistake by signing an illegitimate Memorandum of Understanding with a private promoter. Thanks to the low fees affordable to ordinary parents and its efficient working , students have been attracted to Seeb School from as far as Ruwi! The Seeb School has forced other community schools to reduce fees.
Abhayankar, Special Secretary East, Ministry of External Affairs, who is apparently keen to help the private school business lobby wanted the Seeb Indian School to go to the private promoter. For unknown reasons (any secret deals??)a three member committee formed to decide the fate of ISB took a unanimous decision to give the school to George Mathew. The former chairman of Indian School Board was also playing a dual role. While he wanted the school to be given to the private promoter, he was pretending to support the community interest. Ultimately the patron sought the Ministry of Educations opinion, which said the school should be started as a community school.
This vital decision has created panic among other two private community schools (all schools coming under the Indian Embassy are community schools). Every effort has been made to delay the Seeb School project. However, the signing of an agreement with the builder indicates that the school will continue to remain a community school charging reasonable fee.
Will anyone venture to convert this community school charging RO 18 per month into a private school charging RO 40 per month! Several Members of Parliament could be bribed to sign a complaint against the Indian Ambassador for making this school suitable for average parents. Rumour mill says one of the superman NRI was ready to spent several lakhs just to bribe the MPs sign a complaint against the Indian Ambassador in Muscat. The funny part is that these MPs do not know anything about the life and problems of ordinary NRIs. They know only the money power of the "most powerful NRIs". Will they bother to spend more money to convert the ISB into a commercial school??
We still remember their oath to work for...Only recently the central government in India came under severe criticism for corruption and bribery. A minister had to resign for demanding bribe. Here a group of NRIs are openly claiming that they got 30 MPs write a complaint against an ambassador located thousands of miles away from their constituency! How do they know the ground reality here? Did the MPs take any favours or win to sign such a complaint against a sincere diplomat? Going by the past experience, it appears that the so called powerful NRIs have influenced these MPs. Recently they organised a grand party to celebrate the ambassadors transfer. Unfortunately, even the local media which is claiming to be a watchdog of common man's interest is praising and worshiping such corrupt tycoons. They will be eligible for a special award for bribery and corruption in the next Pravasi Sammelan !(keralamonitor.com)
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November 16, 2001
Indian School Muscat may run Indian School Seeb
keralamonitor.com
Satnam Sing The proposed new Indian school in the Seeb-al Hail area is likely to remain a full fledged community school rather than a privately sponsored one as publicised by the promoters. It is learned that the higher authorities have reversed the decision of former Indian Ambassador Satnam Sing and decided that the proposed Indian school in Seeb will function purely as a community school. The higher authorities are of the view that the Indian community interest will be best served by a community school, which serves the ordinary Indian community members rather than a private school, which serves the promoters business interests. The proposed school will accommodate about 2,000 students in the first year of operation. Even though the Ministry of Education in Oman has granted the final sanction for the school recently, the Indian Ambassador seems to have taken a different view in favour of a community school. More
Memorandum of Understanding between P. Mohammed Ali and Renjith Guptha for the Al Ghubra Indian School Page II Page III