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Indian School Bahrain AGM to witness heated debate

Manama : The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Indian School Bahrain (ISB), which will be held at its Riffa campus today, is expected to witness heated debate over several issues affecting the largest community school in the Kingdom.

The AGM, which starts at 8am today, will discuss some important resolutions, proposals and constitutional amendments put forward mainly by opposition parents. 

One of the proposals, which is a bone of contention, will be the move to stop the private tuitions by school teachers. The proposal put forward by parent Soy Paul states that though it is illegal in the Kingdom, many ISB teachers practise private tuition by charging heavy fees. As a result, ordinary parents suffer and hence the school must take appropriate steps in this regard, it states.  

Referring to the proposal,  ISB Chairman Prince S Natarajan told DT News that there may be some students who require private tuition due to low achievement in studies, but that is not a reason to charge exorbitant fees. Private tuition should not affect the academic quality or performance of the teachers in the school, he said.

School Secretary Dr Shemily P John said the Ministry of Education (MoE) should issue a circular with clear guidelines on private tuition. 

“In my opinion the MoE should issue an order to stop all private tuitions not only in ISB, but in all schools in the Kingdom,” she said. 

Another proposal said the ministry nominees should not hold any post in the Executive Committee (EC). Referring to this proposal, Dr Shemily said the ministry nominee cannot be discriminated as they are also parents and they have earned the full trust of the MoE. 

“If we stop the nominees from holding any position in the panel, we will be questioning the MoE; that should not happen,” she added.

Yet another proposal is that the duration of the elected EC should be limited to two years instead of the current three and that the members should not contest in the next election. Another one proposes that the EC member should have his child studying in the school during his/her full term.

Dr Shemily urged the parents to support all the resolutions that benefit the school, hinting discussion on constitutional amendments regarding the code of conduct.

She accused some parents of tarnishing the image of the school due to their misbehaviour during previous AGMs as ministry observers will also be present during the meeting.