Indian School Parents Forum (ISPAF) delegation meets Mohammed Abdul Raziq (5th R), chairman of the managing committee of International Indian School Jeddah. — Courtesy photo Hassan Cheruppa and Abdul Rahman M. Baig Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH – Several parents and leaders of Indian community organizations severely criticized the recent decision of the managing committee of International Indian School Jeddah (IISJ) to make a 20 percent hike in the tuition fee and transportation charges of students. They said this puts a big burden on the low- and middle-income families, especially for parents with three or four schoolgoing children. Many parents noted that the IISJ fee structure is the highest compared with other international Indian schools in the Kingdom. “The hike in Riyadh and Dammam schools is an average SR30 but in Jeddah it is SR50, and there had been an aggregate increase of more than 60 percent in fees over the last four years,” one parent said. Parents point out that many promises made at the time of a fee hike in 2011 remains unfulfilled. The community groups announced plans to approach the Indian government and the consulate general to intervene in the issue to withdraw the fee hike decision. Mir Gazanfar Ali Zaki, general secretary of Indian Youth Welfare Association (IYWA) Jeddah, told Saudi Gazette that the fee hike is a big burden to many low-income parents who are struggling to make ends meet. “It is a huge burden for ordinary expatriates, especially those with three or more children, who rely on IISJ for affordable quality education,” he said while urging the school authorities to reconsider the decision. The Indian School Parents Forum (ISPAF) urged the school authorities to reconsider the decision. A delegation of ISPAF, headed by its President Abdul Aziz Thankayathil and General Secretary Naser Chavakkad, met Mohammed Abdul Raziq, chairman of the managing committee, to convey to him the parents' outrage over the fee hike. While favoring pay raise for the school staff, the delegation suggested using the school's reserve fund worth millions of riyals for meeting the additional liabilities without burdening the low and middle income Indians who constitute the majority of parents. Appreciating the school's outstanding performance, the ISPAF delegation drew attention of the chairman to the unfulfilled promises of the school authorities while increasing the fees four years ago. Several community organizations including Jeddah and Makkah committees of Overseas Indian Cultural Congress (OICC), Kerala Muslim Cultural Center (KMCC), and Navodaya Cultural Forum demanded the school authorities to reconsider the decision. Meanwhile, some parents considered the decision as “the sole way taken under compulsion to make some increase in the salaries of teachers.” Sabah Noureen, an old student of IISJ and mother of four students of the school, said the tuition fee hike could be justified while taking into account the fact that the IISJ staff are among the lowest paid compared to the staff of other community schools in the city. “We have to take this positively as teachers of our children deserve more recognition with better pay, and the fee hike is not big if we take into account the hikes made at frequent intervals by private schools in the city,” said Noureen, who works at a private school.
