‘Indian School must withdraw fee hike’

Manama: The United Parents Panel (UPP) has asked the Indian School Bahrain (ISB) executive committee to withdraw its decision to increase the school fees.

“UPP has started a signature campaign demanding the withdrawal of fee hike and we plan to get signatures of around 2,000 parents,” the panel representatives stated at a press conference yesterday.

By implementing the fee hike planned for the next academic year starting in April, the executive committee has made a U-turn from the promises to the parents during the election campaign, according to UPP representatives. The present executive committee, backed by Progressive Parents Alliance (PPA), had claimed in their manifesto that they would “explore the possibility to reduce the fees.”

The decision to increase the school fees was taken in the ISB Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) held in December last year, which was boycotted by UPP over “constitutional negligence,” saying that the decision was “undemocratic.”

UPP representatives claimed that the ISB executive committee’s strategy is to reveal the details of the fee hike only after the Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam (BKS) election on March 18 in which the School Chairman is supporting one of the two panels.

They have also demanded to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) at the earliest, calling for revocation of the decision to hike school fee.

Meanwhile, UPP Chairman Ajayakrishnan urged the executive committee to withdraw the fee hike, citing that the school is going to conduct a fund-raising mega fair on April 29 and 30 to overcome the financial problems.

UPP also requested the Education Ministry not to give permission to increase the school fee, which will affect thousands of parents.