The Board of Directors (BoD) of Indian schools in Oman clarified on Tuesday that its directive to collect a one-time non-refundable RO100 fee for new admissions and RO10 per year from existing students, is uniform across all 19 Indian schools.

The board said that the fee structure in Indian schools varies and the implementation strategy may vary accordingly.

The board’s clarification comes after parents expressed their anguish over the non-refundable infrastructure development fee imposed on new and existing students.

“I have noticed that there is discrimination regarding the application of this directive from the Board of Directors in regard to the one-time non-refundable fee of RO100. Indian School Ghubra is charging RO110 for new admissions despite the presence of siblings in the same school whereas Indian School Muscat is charging a lesser figure as non-refundable fee from children who have siblings in their school. I fail to understand this discrimination,” a concerned parent said.

Wilson George, chairman of Board of Directors of Indian schools in Oman said, “The directive from the board is to collect a non-refundable fee of RO100 one time, from the new admission cases and RO10 per year from existing children, which is uniform across the schools. Since the fee structure is different for each school, the implementation strategy may vary from school to school.

“However, the board also has asked schools not to refuse admissions to any child because of parents’ inability to pay the non-refundable RO100 fee during admissions. Schools, however, will take an undertaking from parents that they will pay the non-refundable fee in instalments as per their convenience.

“The confusion seems to arise from comparison of fee structure of Indian schools in Oman. Although the schools function under BoD, there are areas where every school, having separate management and having come into existence over a period of time, function independently. The fee structure is one such aspect.”

A concerned parent whose children are in Indian School Muscat said, “Even I was surprised when I read that it will be RO370 as admission fee for my second child this year. But then the message also read that I will have to pay RO170 if the child has a sibling in the same school, which was comforting. It will be taxing for parents who have two new admissions to any of these schools. They will have to shell out more than RO700, which is a big amount.”

While the Board of Directors does regulate each school in terms of general guidelines applicable to all schools, the BoD has not put in place a common fee structure across all schools. “It is therefore possible for the schools to have different approaches towards fees while complying with all the regulations laid down by BoD. A comparison between schools with respect to the fee charged is therefore not just practical but will also lead to unnecessary confusion and apprehensions.”

One of the immediate priorities of BoD is to alleviate the plight of the more than 3,000 children currently studying in afternoon schools. It is towards this urgent need that it is expediting the construction of a new school in Al Ansab. The work on the school is expected to be completed by this year-end and it could begin functioning from the academic term 2019-20.

The new school, with a capacity to accommodate more than 4,000 students, will be a boon to the Indian community in Muscat. This will not only put an end to the need for afternoon classes but also help reduce the number of students in each class from the current 45-50 per class to a more favourable student-teacher ratio.

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