Oman Wires It's all about Oman
Parents allege that the college has hiked fee totalling RO58 per student annually in the final two years with out any cause. However, the college principal, D N Rao, stated that the hike is nominal.
The petition (a copy of which is with Muscat Daily
) states that ISWK is escalating the fee each and every year with out the consent of the parents. “No intimation was circulated to parents and parents’ meeting with the school principal/board of directors was not arranged. For instance, in April 2017, there was RO12 increase. In April 2018, there was another RO12 hike. This year, there will be RO34 increase (as per the fee structure which was published on the ISWK website),” the petition alleges.
“We have come to speak with the principal. Although, it’s a small amount monthly, many will struggle to pay it. The market conditions are not good and many expats are leaving for good. We are being forced to bear additional costs. If the idea is to improve the quality of education, it is not fair to pass the burden on parents,” M Vilvapathi, a parent of two kids and the leader of the group told Muscat Daily
.
“If the fee is hiked by RO58 per child within two years, you can imagine the hardship those having two or three children will face. ISWK has increased the fee by RO34 this year alone. Parents of students in ISWK have to pay a difference of RO42 [KGI] to RO142 [Class XII] per year compared to those studying in Indian School Muscat,” the petition states.
Mathew Gigy whose two kids are studying in the college, stated, “We have to pay such a large amount every year. The market situation is bad. If they increase the fee, how will we survive. The management needs to be more open as far as the fee hike is concerned.”
Parvindu Singh, whose two kids are studying in ISWK stated that yet another problem is that parents are not permitted to shift their children to other schools.
“Other schools are charging less but we are not allowed to shift our kids to other Indian schools. We call upon the management to look into this issue as soon as possible.”
Misconceptions about fee hike
In his remarks to Muscat Daily
, D N Rao, Principal of ISWK, stated there are lots of misconceptions about the hike. “The boost is only RO1. As the kid gets promoted to larger class, the fee goes up as per the structure. In 2017-18, we improved the fee by RO1 and it was exact same for 2018-19. This academic year, the management decided to boost it by RO2 per month. This was carried out in order to help teachers.
“This year we decided to add RO10 per year for the activities that we organise in the school. Earlier, we used to ask parents to contribute as and when there was an event but we decided to have it as RO10 fee per year.”
On the problem of permitting kids to shift to other schools, Rao stated, “We do allow inter-school transfer but there should be a genuine reason. We have accepted requests in the past and that it is not an issue. It all depends on the seat availability.”
Information Source: Muscat Daily
