Indian schools must allow internal transfer of pupils

Dear Sir,Internal transfer of students among Indian schools is not allowed in Qatar at present. The schools point to a circular issued from the Supreme Education Council (SEC) for this. This poses a huge problem for parents who have shifted to new accommodations because of job-related issues and commuting convenience. Even if an Indian school is near their new house, parents still need to take their children to their old school which could be quite far from their area now, driving through congested roads for long stretches or arranging school transport, if the place they have shifted to is covered by it. If internal transfers among Indian schools is permitted, this problem will not arise. Such a measure will be a boon to many parents. Another important point to note is that the syllabuses followed in all Indian schools are not the same. Some schools offer the Kerala education board’s syllabus while most offer the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) one.The Ideal Indian School, for instance, doesn’t offer the Kerala syllabus. I have a child who is not quite comfortable with the ICSE syllabus and I would rather have him switch over to the Kerala syllabus if his difficulties persist. But he won’t be able to do this if he continues in Ideal Indian. And under the present system, I’m not allowed to transfer him to another Indian school which offers the Kerala syllabus!Also, some expatriates have lost their jobs or switched to new ones and find it difficult to send their children to schools which charge higher fees than the standard institutions. In the changed economic situation, they would like to move their children to schools whose fees are comparatively lower. In the beginning of this academic year,  no empty seats were available in all schools. But during the last few months, many Indian families have returned home because of the shifting grounds in the job market. Seats are available in some schools due to this, I understand.Hence, I request the authorities to reconsider their decision and allow internal student transfer among Indian schools. Also, I would like to use this opportunity to request the Ideal Indian management to extend the school’s winter vacation in December this year. The school has announced just a five-day holiday in December. This is inconvenient to many parents who schedule their yearly vacation in December. The SEC has given authority to schools to decide the length of their winter vacation period, but still a few schools are not ready to reinstate their previous December vacation schedule, partly because they can collect transportation fee from their students for one more month. Before the change of the winter holiday schedule, schools were not charging transportation fee for December from parents.Please note that schools like the MES are still giving extended holidays during December which is appreciated. I request  Ideal Indian to adopt the practice followed by other Indian schools on winter vacation.Biju Abraham, abrahambiju@yahoo.com Change the mindsetDear Sir,In reference to the letter (“Wrong priorities”, Gulf Times, April 13) on Dubai’s plan to build a new tower, which is set to be taller than the Burj Khalifa,  the writer’s view reflects his  mindset, which, I feel, is dated. One has to think and dream big. Only then great things can be achieved. There won’t be any development unless we take that extra leap. The writer doesn’t seem to know that the buildings are important assets of a country, contributing to its GDP. Dubai hosts a lot of landmarks and it is far ahead of many other regional cities in terms of infrastructure and facilities provided to residents. The city’s various attractions lure millions of visitors every year. The proposed tower, costing $1bn, will create a lot of jobs in the construction sector which will directly benefit other sectors of business associated with it. If we follow the writer’s line of thinking, we would still have been working on paddy fields and riding bullock carts. What a great vision! Unless a country creates an environment for developments, how could a society move forward? Let the writer change his mindset.M Siraj, (e-mail address supplied)Please send us your  letters By e-mail: editor@gulf-times.com