School fees payment appeal

TDT | Manama

One of the largest schools in the Middle East is facing huge financial crunch due to the unexpected economic situation that has resulted from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Indian School Bahrain (ISB) recently issued a circular addressed to parents regarding the “unprecedented” low collection of fees caused by the current health crisis.

In the circular dated June 22, principal VR Palaniswamy stated: “We would like to bring to your kind attention that the school is passing through a bad financial situation, due to unprecedented low fee collection during these days. “The fees due as of now are more than BD 700,000 from 7,950 students, which is affecting the day-to-day operations of the school and leading towards an unmanageable situation.

“We appeal to the parents to give top priority for the payment of school fees and clear the pending fees at the earliest to ensure the stability of the school.” ISB chairman Prince Natarajan said that the school’s authorities had alerted parents who have been affected by COVID-19 repercussions to submit an application for fee concession last April itself.

“We have received nearly 1,500 applications requesting for fee concession,” Natarajan told TDT. “The committee already verified the documents submitted by 350 parents and is also making online interviews to understand their problems. We are in the process of verifying 1,000 eligible applications.

“We are not able to reduce any costs mainly because the teachers are putting extra efforts to make videos and PowerPoint presentations to prepare for online classes. “Right now we have a twomonth delay for staff salaries and we want to clear at least 75 per cent of this amount before Eid. This can happen only if the parents pay the fees with immediate effect.”

Parents are urged to make the fee payments using the existing online platforms. “The parents should take this issue seriously to save the school,” Natarajan added. “Since we have only 1,500 applications for fee concession, we assume the rest of the parents can afford to pay the fees, but delays are happening exploiting the market situation or for no reason.”