Oct 02, 2013 08:30 AM
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ARTICLE NEWS FOR PRESIDENCY SCHOOL NORTH PRINCIPAL PUBLISHED IN OMAN.
https://omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=146709&heading=Oman.
Indian Schools board sacks ISM principal for ‘malpractice, forgery’ Staff Reporter MUSCAT The tussle between the Board of Directors(BoD) of Indian Schools in Oman and School Management Committee(SMC) of Indian School Muscat took a dramatic turn on Wednesday with the board deciding to accept the resignation of ISM principal Achuthan Madhav. Parents and students expressed shock over the development. The board, which held a marathon meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, the last working day of the first term of the 2013-14 academic year, disregarded Madhav’s resignation withdrawal letter and instead accepted the resignation with effect from June 11. The board has appointed senior section vice-principal as the acting principal and said that efforts are under way to identify and recruit a principal. Further, a new president would take over the ISM SMC shortly, the board said.
“The BoD of Indian schools, through the board’s adviser Mathew Abraham, informed me that they have not made any change to their decision on my resignation. So, Wednesday was the last day of my tenure at ISM, ” Achuthan Madhav said. On the withdrawal of resignation letter, the board did not mention anything about it, Achuthan said. The board has also removed ISM school management committee president Tapan Meshram from the post, he told Oman Tribune. Parents of students registered their protest. “The BoD’s decision is un-democratic. By announcing the decision on the concluding day of the first term of the academic year, they have ensured that parents and students don’t get together and launch a unified protest, ” a parent said. “The BoD could have resolved the matter in an appropriate way instead of forcibly removing the principal, ” another parent said. The board had asked the principal to resign as he had allegedly manipulated the election procedure and also instructed printing of Swami Vivekananda’s picture on the school calendar. However, Madhav had countered the charges saying that he had appointed two prefects, which was within his power as the principal.
Further, designing the school calendar was the prerogative of the principal, he had said. The board in a lengthy statement said that junior prefects in ISM middle school are generally selected by a judicious election process and not according to the principal’s prerogative. In this case, principal intervened in the election process and sent an SMS to the vice-principal prior to the election, on the election day, instructing him to ensure that the ward of a specific SMC member gets ‘elected’ as prefect. The message also continues to consider the children of other SMC members, which is an attempt to interfere into the election process, misuse of authority and prompting the subordinates to engage in rigging, the statement said. After receiving complaints from various quarters and after an initial inquiry, the chairman had formed a three-member inquiry committee from the BoD, to look into the matter and submit a report. Under normal circumstances, the BoD would have instructed the SMC to conduct an inquiry. However, as the wards of the SMC members were involved and considering the conflict of interest, the BoD constituted the committee from the BoD members only. When the BoD started the process of inquiring into the election process, a second SMS was sent by the principal to the vice-principal alerting him that the BoD is scrutinizing the matter and instructed him to keep the records straight and to ensure that they are “perfect.” In this case, the principal has misused his power, prompting the subordinate to forge the records, the statement said.
During the process of inquiry, when the BoD called for the original documents, for verification, the principal asked the election coordinator to give only the ballot papers and not the file containing the details of the number of votes and the original list. Subsequently the principal has asked the coordinator to remove the names of the subject students from the list, which the coordinator refused to do so. Hence, the principal has asked for photocopies of the list and removed the names of the two children himself, so that the rigging, on his instruction, would not be evident and would then be projected as a nomination. He then sent the tampered documents to BoD office, which amounts to forgery of records. Above all, he on his own accord had accepted having done so and apologized for the same in writing, in response to our inquiry, the board said. The board further said that revelations of the inquiry along with written statements given by the relevant people were discussed in the BoD meeting held on June 10 and it was unanimously decided that only on this particular issue that the principal should be relieved with immediate effect.
In this meeting, the ISM convener was also present and did not have any different opinion on the matter. Prior to conveying the decision, the Principal was given the opportunity to present himself before the BoD members and explain his position. At this, the principal did not have anything to say other than offering an apology. Considering the principal’s age, services rendered to the school and having received accolades, the BoD wanted to give him a graceful exit, hence the BoD asked him to resign rather than being terminated. The principal agreed to take the first option and submitted his resignation on June 11.
Consequent to the SMC’s representation letter to the BoD, the principal, realizing that he had gained support, withdrew his resignation, by underplaying the core issue of the prefects’ election/nomination and the forgery of documents and highlighting a non-issue in an obvious attempt to divert the whole matter and malign the BoD and to fuel public sentiments, the statement added.
OMAN TRIBUNE.