A lack of available spaces at the Indian International School Jeddah (IISJ) has angered members of the Indian Community in Jeddah. The 200 to 300 seats available are filled by a fraction of the 3,000 students who apply every year, said Malik Mujahid, who has a three-year-old child. Mujahid was not able to enroll his child at the IISJ because of the overwhelming crowd of parents trying to get an admission form. He said parents come from 4:00 a.m. just to be first in the queue to get the form. Akmal Suhail, another concerned parent wondered why the government has not stepped in to help alleviate the situation. “Indian International Schools in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Jubail are key institutions where there is a need to increase the seats according to the huge number of Indian expatriates,” he said. Suhail objected to chosen date when the forms are distributed, saying that the school exams are in process so it only makes for school management more difficult. “This is a wrong time to distribute registration form. Management cannot handle the mob when it is busy for exams. They should distribute these forms on a Thursday when most parents have the day off,” Suhail said. Nighat Ameen, was at the school at 6:00 A.M. but could not make her way to get a form because of the large crowd. To avoid this she says that the forms could be provided online, especially since India is an IT driven country. “Students can easily be registered via the Internet using their names and their birthdates. This method has already applied successfully in schools all around the world,” she said. She was also concerned about the security in the school. Why they are not able to handle the crowd? She saw many women left the school premises aggressively and weepy mood and complained that management distributed same cue token to many people by mistake due to rush. Principal of IISJ M.S.Rehman told to Saudi Gazette that they have given 1,200 registration forms to all the classes and ensured that everyone received a form. “Only 10 percent of parents did not register on time due to the criteria. Moreover, not all of the parents would admit their children here, but they had taken the registration forms,” Rehman said. In response to the issues of a shortage of seats Rehman said there are more than 200 seats for lower kindergarten students. “We are trying our best to accommodate more pupils at the school to meet the unprecedented increase in demand for admission this year,” Rehman said. Currently the schools website is under construction, he said, and plans to have the forms available online are under way. IISJ was established in 1982. It is one of the most renowned and largest schools catering to the Indian community. __
