When individuals or organizations, focus in establishing an educational institute with Quality standards, they should begin with the ‘end in mind’ and realize that the function of formal education is to provide a foundation for lifelong learning and to enable each student to participate effectively and responsibly in a changing world. The school should recognize the critical role of parents, businesses and the community in helping individual students and the school to meet educational goals.

A successful educational program also depends on innovation at the individual school level.

In addition to providing a basic education program, the school should believe that the educational program also must strive to provide each student with the opportunity to:

Develop effective communication skills;

Learn to be responsible for and accept the consequences of one’s conduct and academic performance; acquire attitudes and practices that foster good physical and mental health;

Develop the capacity to examine and solve problems;

Develop creative skills and an understanding and appreciation of the arts;

Foster respect and appreciation for cultural and ideological diversity and differences;

Develop the ability to be productive in a team environment;

Learn and acquire the skills necessary for a lifetime of continuous learning and adaptation to change in the workplace and society; Prepare for challenging curriculum beyond school;

Acquire the skills needed for technological literacy in a rapidly changing world. These goals and objectives of the educational program will be used to guide administrators, teachers and the board in all of their duties, including curriculum development, selection of materials and issues related to instructional time.

Objectives of the school, to be communicated to students, which would empower them to understand and be part of the strategy, and involve themselves to translate the strategy into action. Relating the above essential requirements to the Indian schools in Qatar, we see a very different picture with no focused direction and sense of Innovative Management. There exists, in Doha City 4 schools namely the MES, Ideal Indian School, Shanthineketan School and Modern Indian School.

-MES School (Muslim Education Society) was the first to establish its operations in the country of Qatar.

Dominating the educational arena, using the Indian Syllabus, left rather little choice for the Indian Community, to admit their wards, in a school, which is today considered over crowded, concentrating more on quantity than quality, burdening children with more than required homework and assessments, and with very low motivation levels for its teachers.

-Breaking away from the monopoly of MES, the Ideal Indian School was founded with an objective of delivering improved teaching methods. The quality of teachers and the teaching methods were more in line with the old school of thought of having more academics without balancing the extracurricular activities. Teachers, use the black board to complete the formality of explaining one example of a concept, to students who then are supposed to carry out other questions, on their own.  There never exists a system of testing understanding during the class.

Both the schools follow a rather primitive teaching method, and transfer of information to the children.  Classrooms are over crowded, and rather impossible for teachers to build that 1:1 relationship. Low salaries encourage teachers to revert to evening tuition that is more of a business proposition, and hence school going is more of a formality, rather than a necessity. Improper recruitment methods, selection of teachers, career growth, Scorecards to measure Performance, Motivation levels, and salary structures, may be deterrents that divide the outlook to improve the total educational system within these Indian schools.

It was with great expectations, that the MIS school was founded with a promise, of establishing a 1:1 relationship between student and teacher, balancing academics with extracurricular activities, a teaching plan to impart knowledge during the classroom, and avoid children to carry work home. The first year of the school, operations gave an impression of a well-managed set up.

With a high rate of fees, and only a niche segment subscribing to this school, the school was anticipating a segment i.e. Qatar Gas, Qatar Petroleum and other related Company’s who provide fees, for the education of their employee’s offspring to come forward, and admit their wards. When this was a reality the next year, the desire to subscribe to the school was high. This created a rather encouraging response for the school, which was not geared up; hence break down in the control of Administration and recruitment of bringing in Quality Teachers from India.

In spite of various, suggestions, and recommendations there has been no improvement, in the overall operations of the school.

Teachers are recruited locally; there has been no 1:1 relationship between teachers and students.  Biased attitude of teachers, improper teaching plan, Incompetent administration, concentration more on extracurricular activities, resulting in a race to complete the required portions, before the commencement of examinations. Generally teachers are on a holiday package. Arrogance and defensive attitude of teachers in authority when approached to voice concern.

The law of the farm: to prepare the ground, put in the seed, cultivate it, weed it, water it, then gradually nurture growth and development to full maturity has never been applied in establishing the school. The school projected a totally deceptive picture of what they would give, in Return to the Parents investment of educating their wards in an Indian School, which demands nearly 3 ½ times the fees, compared to other Indian schools.

In fact the question asked what is the Return on Investment? What value Addition to our wards education vis-a- vis   the previous school in which he/she was in? The daily expensés, in procuring stationery for various activities, no justification of the initial amount collected at the beginning of the year for activities like swimming etc. which are not imparted in a proper manner or to say there are no such swimming activities especially during the last year. Note books, Textbooks, and other uniform materials are not sourced from affordable outlets, and this highhanded approach leads parents to buy, the pre-requisite at much higher prices from the school stores.

Today parents are in a predicament, to highlight their concerns to the school since they fear vindictive attitude towards their wards, and further the embarrassment to move the children back to the previous school they came from, which is today considered a better choice, even though they realize the poor educational system that exists.

A section of parents are using Delhi Public School, Brand name as a platform, to obtain a transfer back to India, thus avoiding the high handed system that is prevalent in India to pay high donations. Thus the mental scarcity, the win-loose attitude, fear of change and poor human resource management is hurting the bottom lines of an effectively managed Educational System within the Indian Schools. The schools should work on a Mission Statement, which reads as-To establish a reliable, dependable and affordable quality school in Qatar, with an objective to impart knowledge, through highly trained teachers who acknowledge their profession as a vocation.

Further, schools should establish a core Management Team that would drive towards the shifting of educational innovation, focus and align the objectives, and monitor the measurement scorecard to reach desired results.