With the start of the new academic year for all Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools, the International Indian School Dammam accepted a large number of new admissions boosting its student population to more than 15,500 which makes it one of the largest schools in the Middle East. However, some parents whose children are studying at IISD say that the school is unable to accommodate such a large number of children. Amina, a mother of three, says that her daughter's third-grade classroom, which is accommodated in one of the villas, does not have enough chairs for students to sit on and the room is much too small for the number of students in the class. “My daughter told me that they removed the teacher's table in order to put in more chairs. They are putting the chairs together and three children are made to sit on two chairs,” she said. Farhana, another mother, complained of the lack of a teacher in her child's class. “My daughter studying in the third grade has no class teacher yet. It is almost two weeks since the school reopened and still these problems persist. It is inexcusable on the part of the school authorities. If they were going to admit a large number of new students, they should have recruited more staff beforehand,” said an enraged Farhana. Saidalavi, a father of three studying at IISD, complained about the lack of space. “The new villa taken by the school authorities has very small classrooms which can accommodate a maximum of 20 students. Some classes have 27 children sitting together in such a small space. It is very unhealthy,” he said. One of the students studying in third grade said that five students are using two tables and four chairs and her class teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the terrible situation in the classroom. The Principal of IISD, Dr. E.K. Mohammed Shaffe, told Saudi Gazette, that the school is working very hard to solve the problem of the shortage of teachers and classroom furniture. “This year we had around 1,600 new admissions and we have so far appointed around 95 new teachers. We still need ten more teachers, and we will resolve this matter within a few days,” he said.
