Thaindian News

Muscat, Mar.27 (ANI): Five members of the Indian School Muscat have been elected to be the part of Board of Directors that frames policies for Indian schools in Oman.

Out of the 14 candidates, who contested for the five seats of Indian schools’ Board of Directors, Alexander Tonny George, Subramanian Muthukumar, Mukavarukandy Ambujakshan, Michael Arul and Anchan C. K. came out with flying colours.

Oman’s Education Ministry had issued a directive in 2006 to all the community schools to hand over the running of the schools to parents but Indian schools with over 30,000 pupils had been delaying the elections on one or the other pretext.

The old Indian School Board kept sending a new constitution with an aim of guarding the interests of promoters of three, out of over 15 schools, but the ministry kept rejecting it until it was accepted late last year.

Meanwhile, the ministry also amended its own order and allowed representatives of the embassy to be on the board. The first order had clearly said no role for diplomatic missions.

The new board of the Indian school will have only five elected out of 15 members on the board. All five are from Indian School Muscat, which has over 7, 400 students.

There were 5,375 eligible voters, but only 1,233 exercised their franchise, which, Yashpal Mehta, the Election Commissioner, attributed to lack of awareness.

“Overall the elections went off smoothly except for a human error which was sorted out in the end,” The Gulf News quoted Mehta, as saying.

Tony George, who heads Abdu Habi based UAE Exchange’s Oman operations, polled the highest 245 votes.

“This is first time we have had elected members so we will work hard to see the welfare of students,” said Tony as he pledged to work for the betterment of the children. (ANI)