Congratulations to all who made the IISJ proud by best ever AISSCE (Plus 2) results

Dear all,

Once again IISJ has come to be recognized throughout the academic world as the best brand known for its progressive approach and commitment to excellence.

The achievement of  excellent board scores this year, which was as a result of teamwork between teachers, students and parents. Congratulations to all students who made the school proud by 100%  results and special appreciation to the students who topped the school.

CANDIDATE NAME	POSITION	Total	Per%
HAMMAD YUSUF	I	477	95.4
FAHAD AHMED	II	467	93.4
MUHAMMAD MIR MOHIUDDIN	III	466	93.2
MIRZA SAADULLAH BAIG	IV	456	91.2
BILAL SHARQI	V	455	91
CANDIDATE NAME	POSITION	Total	Per%
WARDAH MOHAMMED USMAN	I	482	96.4
ADHEELA ABDUL RAHEEM	II	480	96
MEHZABEEN CHALUKANDY PEEDIKAYIL	III	479	95.8
FATHIMA ZEINA SHAJAHAN	IV	475	95
ABEER PERVEZ	V	472	94.4

The management has delivered the goods of transforming the student into an individual with sound academic base, analytical skills and cultural values by providing an environment for the student to become competitive, loving, sympathetic and accommodative without compromising on individual values.

On this rewarding occasion, we members of Parents Voice Forum would like to thank the school management, administration and teachers for the excellent grounding that the team has given to our children on achieving the bench mark, something that needs to be valued and does not happen by accident.

IISJ PARENTS VOICE FORUM TEAM

Meeting with Consul General Mr. Fais Ahmad Kidwai

IISJ Parents’ VOICE TEAM met Consul General Mr. Fais Ahmad Kidwai at his office today, 11th May 2011 and submitted the copy of memorandum which was presented earlier to International Indian School Principal Mr. Syed Masood Ahmed on 25th of April 2011. Also, we expressed our serious concerns about the exorbitant FEE increase (40%) in International Indian School Jeddah which is unjust while the school already have a good budget. This Fee hike is effecting badly majority of average salaried INDIAN parents. We are not against a nominal increase in the fee to have a better education and infrastructure but being a community school IISJ went beyond the limits unilaterally without considering parents. It is disgraceful thing that, we are coming from a democratic country and we don’t have an elected Managing Committee for this community school. Also, there is no PTA for parents to interact with teachers / School. The CG cordially entertained us to hear all our concerns and he responded us that he will look in to our concerns positively and will do whatever he can since the school is not under direct administration of consulate now.
Mr. Siraj Kollam, Mr. Abdul Basheer CH, Engr. Mohamed Baiju and Mr. Ashraf Unneen were in the parents’ delegation to meet the CG.

Memorandum against Fee-Hike submitted to Principal

IISJ Parents' Voice Team met IISJ Principal Mr. Syed Masood Ahmed on 25th April 2011 at his office and submitted the memorandum below along with parents' comments received  for our earlier post  "Parents appeal to the Principal".  .
  
The Principal allowed us to talk freely our concerns about fee hike and other issues of IISJ & assured us he will forward our suggestion to higher board for their review and consideration.


Below is the memorandum submitted to the Principal:

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April 23, 2011

To     :       International Indian School Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Attn. :       Mr. Syed Masood Ahmed        Cc : Consulate General, Jeddah

The Principal                              : Higher Board IISJ

                                                               

Sub :       IISJ Parents joint appeal to reconsider the fee hike.

Respected sir,

This has reference to your Circular # IIS/JED/PRL/2010-11 dated 22-March-2011 regarding academic and infrastructural development of Indian School and the unilateral decision to go for a considerable fee hike, which we, parents (organized under the www.iisjparents.blogspot.com) of International Indian School express our serious concern & anguish jointly and request you to reconsider the fee hike in view of our suggestions outlined below as follows:

Our concerns:

The first and foremost – the concerns of parents were not been taken care while implementing such a fee hike. 

a.    Absence of PTA:  We believe that as expatriate Indian parents in Jeddah, we are the part of the school, but never got a chance to know what are the gains and issues of the school. It is quite unfortunate that we, parents don’t have any voice in this community institution, and we feel that parents are treated merely as the fees payers.

b.    The school financial status is not published and been kept many years not transparent.  Since it is a public/ Community institution – there should be an elected body of the parents and the officials of the school.  This will enable the parents to get updated on the financial /educational / administrational status of school at any time.

c.    Our school is having surplus/ reserve amount in the past where the teachers were not paid reasonably. Now squeezing the parents by projecting this issue is not justifiable.  As a community School, it should be a no profit / no loss institution, whereas the school has accumulated a huge reserve of millions over the years.  The said amount has never been used for the improvement of school on a time bound schedule. Our IISJ has to be transformed a lot, to keep abreast with the standards of other CBSE schools in the region and in India. 

d.   School Transportation: The existing transportation facility does not meet the requirements comparing to the strength of our students. Our school buses are fully packed with more students than its capacity. But instead of improving the facility adding more buses in to the fleet, school authorities are on a privatization programme and the private (contract) transporter is using the same school for his service,  which raises enough doubts on the credibility of the decision.

e.   Lack of a body to evaluate the efficiency of the teachers has been noticed that there are a lot of teachers whom have to be retired long back/there are teachers not up to the standards still continuing. There should be a proper body to evaluate the efficiency of teachers/motivate and refresh them time to time. If it is due to non-availability of qualified and efficient teachers, the parents should be informed of it and the committee including parents should find ways to solve the issue. 
Refresher courses, run by highly qualified experts, at least once a year should be given to the teachers.

f.    Pvt. Tuition by Indian School Teachers:  A serious issue the parents are facing is the unscrupulous private tuitions conducted by the teachers of IISJ. The students in higher classes are compelled to go for private tuition, which has been brought to the attention of school authorities several times in the past, but no action has been taken yet.  Once the salaries of the teachers are increased the private tuition should be stopped.  The management committee of parents and teachers should monitor this.

g.   We understand that it is the wrong assessment that all parents are drawing a good salary and are able to bear this fee hike:  The parents should be given a platform to communicate their issues on a timely basis and a common PTA should convene every quarter of the year at least.

Other concerns of parents were attached herewith which we received through online via www.iisjparents.blogspot.com

Our suggestion(s):

1.   Before implementing any rise in the fees, a parent teachers meeting should be convened and the complaints of parents should be taken care of.

2.   Prepare a 5 years Master Plan for the infrastructural development of the school (including the increment of salary of sfaff) & implement it phase to phase in an appropriate manner.

3.   The said plan should be discussed and agreed at least for the first two years by the body – accordingly  take a decision to increase the fee.

4.   Instead of privatizing the transportation facilty, the school should be benefitted and more buses should be added to the fleet.

5.   The surplus fund, if any, should be invested to a scheme and the profit should be provided to the welfare of school teachers and staff.

6.   Implement double shift instead of buying expensive land inside city area and construct new buildings, that can avoid to squeeze  SR 70 millions from the poor parents

In view of the above concerns and suggestion, we kindly request you to freeze the current order of fees hike and implement the same in an amicable manner with the full support of the parents.  Let us work together for the success of our IISJ and our kids.

Best regards,

Signatories:

Sd/-

Siraj Kollam, Noushad Adoor, Nasar Chavakkad & Ashraf Unneen

Int'l Indian School Fee hike - Parents appeal to the Principal

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We, parents of International Indian School Jeddah, have received circular ref. IIS/JED/PRL/2010-11 dated 22-March-2011 from Principal Mr. Syed Masood Ahmed  regarding fees increase effective from April 2011. 

We, parents are not against expanding and upgrading infrastructural facilities to equip our children with the best possible skills to meet the academic and technological demands.  Instead, we appreciate Principal for his sincere undertaking of this noble mission. 

However, we feel the International Indian School Jeddah Authority is not considering the parents as part of the school reforms and development but simply considering them merely as ‘fee payers’ which is not agreeable to a democratic community school. More transparency in all matters, especially in financial things is required. 

As we know, all development at a time to implement in the school is quite impossible. It can be start on priority basis where to accumulate heavy income at a time is not essential.  

We highly recommend the school Authority to form PTA to express their views and allow us to be a part of solutions of school issues. Also, we recommend reinstating a proper School Management committee to discuss and resolve all the relevant issues of school in a democratic way.

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IISJ parents are requested to leave their valuable comments below in a respected manner to convince the Authorities of School to reconsider their odd move in this regard.  

Thank you.

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IIS/JED/PRL/2010-11                                                                                    22 March 2011

C I R C U L A R

Dear Parent,

International Indian Schools in Saudi Arabia have been playing a major role in meeting the educational needs of the Indian community in the Kingdom for more than four decades. The valuable contribution of these schools is attested to by the fact that the number of such schools has increased to 10, with combined strength of more than 50,000 students. All International Indian Schools have maintained academic excellence despite the strain caused due to increase in number of students due to ‘open admission’ policy generally practiced by them. However, some of these schools are now finding it difficult to cater to new admissions due to infrastructural limitations.

2.         International Indian School, Jeddah was started in 1969 with 6 students to cater to the requirements of Indian community residing in the Western province. The school has excelled in all spheres since its inception and holds the distinction of being one of the largest schools in the region, with 10,600 enrolled students. The academic and co-curricular achievements of students of IIS Jeddah are better than other CBSE schools in the region despite having comparatively lower fee structure. 

3.         Ambassador and the Patron of International Indian Schools in Saudi Arabia and the Higher Board have directed that the school should significantly expand and upgrade infrastructural facilities to equip our children with the best possible skills to meet the academic and technological demands placed upon them by the prevailing environment scenario. International Indian School, Jeddah will be pursuing following goals in future to meet these objectives:

(i)              Purchase of land/construction of school building:  The existing premises of the school are inadequate to meet the requirements of additional classrooms generated due to new admissions and the school has been forced to hire villas to cater to new admissions. Despite the hiring of villas, school is able to grant admission to about 1600 students out of 3900 new applicants. The rent liability on school has increased to SR 1 million.

The school plans to acquire land plot of 50000 sq. mtrs.  and construct new premises which would be sufficient to cater to the new admissions for at least next ten years. The purchase of land and construction of premises is expected to cost SR 70 million. However, the self-owned premises would not only ensure financial savings in terms of annual rent but also permit school to grant new admissions without strain on infrastructure.

(ii)               Up-gradation of school facilities:   The academic environment in CBSE schools has undergone a sea-change after the introduction of “Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation” . The new system, which focuses on holistic personality development of children, poses new challenges for students, teachers and schools. The school has drawn up an ambitious agenda for up-gradation of its academic facilities, especially Information Technology and science laboratories. The school intends to spend nearly SR 2 million in the near future towards improvement of classrooms into “smart” classrooms. The existing sports facilities will also be upgraded to improve the non-academic performance of our students. The school plans to introduce e-libraries for the students in near future.

(iii)     Improvement in teaching standards: The school is working tirelessly to improve the capacity and performance of our teaching staff to further improve academic performance of students. The school intends to hire competent teachers from India by obtaining more visas for teaching staff.  However, the recruitment of good teachers from India is hampered by the fact that salary structure for teachers in good schools in India is now far better than the salaries offered by us.

           We have found that the existing salary structure for teachers in school generally fails to attract the best teachers. We intend to revise the salary scales of teaching and non-teaching staff, which has been frozen for several years. The proposed revision will not only motivate and improve the performance of existing staff, but will enable the school to attract best talent as teachers. The salary revision is aimed at overall betterment of teaching standards of the school.

(iv)      Improvement in infrastructural facilities: Several parents have complained about lack of proper infrastructural facilities in school, including unhygienic toilet facilities, inadequate security arrangements and unsatisfactory transportation arrangements. The school will take necessary steps to address these concerns to the satisfaction of parents. The existing janitorial staff would be increased, new buses will be purchased to meet transportation requirements and security of school premises will be enhanced. The non-revision of fee structure by school for several years has led to deterioration of school’s financial condition.

4.                  Taking these factors into account, the school has no choice but to go for upward revision of fee structure for the school. The Higher Board has approved the following fee structure for the school, keeping in mind the financial requirements of the school in future, the existing financial position of the school and the general affordability of parents.

                 

Class	Existing Fees	Revised Fees
KG	170	200
I to V	170	225
VI to X	180	250
XI to XII	230	300
30% Concession from 3rd Child onwards.

Building Development Fund (Payable once at the time of admission)

First Child	SR 1000/-
Second Child	SR 750/-
Third Child	SR 500/-
Fourth Child onwards	Nil

Bus Fee

ZONE	Monthly  fee for each student irrespective of levels
1	SR 100
2	SR 115
3	SR 125
4	SR 135
MAKKAH	SR 210

            The new fee structure is still low in comparison to the fee charged by the other private schools in the region.

5.         I would like to reassure that the additional funds generated through the fee revision will be spent only for the betterment of education for children studying in the school.

Yours sincerely,

Syed Masood Ahmed

Principal

Distribution to:

All Parents of IIS, Jeddah