Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Happy Diwali to all parents, students, school management and administrative staff




Pro-Tem Committee Letter to GIIS

The Principal,
GIIS ,
Brickfields .

5th May , 2007.


Dear Sir,

Re : Safety and Standards Issues at GIIS.

The matter above is referred. I would like to inform you that we have formed a Pro-temp committee to represent the views of the parents of the students at GIIS as there is no provision for a Parents Teacher Association comprising of elected members.

In our inaugural meeting on Saturday, 5th May , 2007 , the following issues were raised and as such, we seek your co-operation in addressing the remedies to the issues below immediately.

Issues Raised:

a) Student – Teacher ratio : Many parents were promised at the point of registration that the ratio will not exceed 15 – 20 students per teacher. However, many classes have ratios that exceed this. In Std 2 , there are classes with 28 students with one teacher !

In addition to that , the school pride’s itself as a
“Montessori” School. May we ask , why then do the kindergarden classes have a much higher ratio’s when the prescribed Montessori class size should be a maximum of 9 students per teacher?

b) Safety of Children : There are numerous issues here . To name a few :
· The security of the entrance is very weak. There is almost no control of people walking in and out of the school. There are no student/parent identification cards system in place for the security of the students.
· There is only one guard at the compound for the security of all of the school. This is highly inadequate.
· Flooding during rain . Students have fallen in drains due to the inadequacy of the school to properly guide and ensure the safety of the students to their respective vehicles.
· There is no shelter in place for parents to use to pick up their children and to ensure that they safely enter their vehicles.
· Some school busses used to fetch kids are without valid permits. This is illegal and as such, they have no insurances to cover the children.
· Food in the canteen’s is being served in Styrofoam plates ! This is unhealthy and unsafe to the welfare of the children.
· There are dead rats and live snakes spotted in the school compound and it took the school 48 hours to remove the dead rat ! Where are the maintenance personnel?


c) Traffic –
· There are massive “traffic jams” on every day of the schooling calendar to the annoyance of both the residents and parents alike. And yet , there is no uniformed traffic warden that mans the road , diverting traffic , ensuring speedy drop off of children and blocking of “one way street” that is being used by certain people to make a quick entry and exit to the school.
· The school rule of allowing only “licensed” transporters is causing the other school busses to stop on the main road, cutting off the artery of the transportation route for all other users!
· Parents were promised at the point of registration that an adjacent land will be occupied to ensure that school busses park at that location and that a special bridge or system will be placed for the children to use. Is there no such move any longer?

d) Lack of Facilities

· Can you please clarify as to the reasons why the size of the canteen was halved when the number of students had increased ?
· Whys is the Tae Kwon Do class now being held in the open field at the back (to the annoyance of the students as it generates a lot of noise) when there was a class dedicated for this earlier?
· Why are there massive delays in handing the students the books/uniforms? How are the students supposed to conduct their lessons?
· There is a serious lack of club facilities for the well being of the students. There is no field or other sport activities and the transportation of the students to another field is raising security concerns among parents.

e) Credential of Teachers – May we ask that we be notified of the credential of the teachers to ensure that the academic standards are maintained. While most of the teachers are doing very well and are critically dedicated, we are concerned about the qualifications of a few.

f) Non Bahasa Speaking Parents – We have concerns from expatriate families that are very concerned about the fact that there is no support system to ensure that weak students are given the extra coaching that is becoming of every international school. Many foreign kids are lost in class as the standards are high. While this is a good thing, (the high standards) there must be additional help for foreign students.


g) Teacher Absenteeism – May we ask why are there frequent teacher absenteeism and this is made worse by the fact that there is a serious lack of relief system in place to ensure that lessons are continued and that the students are not affected.


h) PTA – May we ask why there are no elected members of a PTA when this could seriously improve the standards and communication in the school.

i) Building Fund Payment/Relationship - Why are parents asked to pay for a building fund? Please clarify.
A matter of great concern is the connection of GIIS to the Bhavan Educational Trust of India. Parents are a little confused as to the seemingly arbitrary connection now as opposed to the connection to the Bhavan Trust at the time of advertising the opening of the school.

j) Extra Tuition Fees – While many parents were told at the inception that this school does not practice a “tuition system” , we are aware of teachers giving out tuition classes and this must stop. This defeats the whole point of being in an internationally acclaimed brand of school.

k) Integrity /Non “Proactive” Management – There are far too many issues to list in this letter but we hope that this letter addresses the major concerns. Parents are commonly told that “ if you are not happy, please take your kids elsewhere” and we find this very unbecoming of a school of this stature. Letters of complaints that were written to the school are not responded to in an orderly and detailed fashion and solutions are rarely communicated or implemented.

We ask that you seriously consider all of the matters raised here and call for a meeting of all parents within 14 days. We request that you communicate this event to all parents within 7 days.

Kindly note that nothing in this letter should be termed as a move by certain quarters to discredit the school. Our children study at the school and as such we are equally concerned about the good name of the school. We are here to help in any way that we can but we expect a very quick resolution to the very basic issues that we view as issues that can be solved very easily by a proactive management.

The parents and their children are here to stay in spite of these issues and the purpose of this letter is to document the common findings amongst parents and to ensure that they are addressed.

Having said that, I must stress that the issues raised have been communicated to the school independently by parents via letters, verbally and e-mails.

As no action has been taken so far to rectify the myriad problems we see, we took the positive step to form a Pro-term committee for the benefit of all students.

While we have no intention of making this a big issue, should we received the common – “we will take a look” response from the school, we will have no choice but to proceed to take the matter a lot further. This is not a step we wish to pursue as we believe that the way around this is to resolve all outstanding issues in an amicable fashion.

As such we would appreciate an immediate response from your goodself.

Thanking you in advance and looking forward to a very real opportunity of working with the school management on a constructive basis in the immediate future.,

School Administrator Response to PSG Letters

GLOBAL INDIAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
ISSUES ARISING OUT OF GPM ON 3rd & 10th AUGUST 2007
KG1 & 2

No PTM scheduled yet for KG-1 parents in this academic year.As already informed to all parents at the beginning of the year, the PTM is scheduled for 29 September. Teachers at kindergarten level need a longer period of time to assess the development and progress of each child. The child needs time to ‘settle in’ in the new environment before assessing his progress on different parameters. Hence the first meeting is scheduled in September.In any case, teachers do meet parents Monday through Friday after 12.15 pm to discuss individual children’s progress. It is convenient if they make an appointment with the respective teacher in advance.
Parents request a more detailed feedback on their wards. This feedback should be more on individual child’s personality from the teacher and should be documented and given to parents.Teachers prepare a detailed weekly report which records performance in all activities as well as personality traits. This is sent to all parents through the child on Monday. Teachers have reported, however, that on occasion parents do not realize that the report is in the child’s bag, and it comes back unopened on Tuesday.

School to confirm whether they issue report card when the child moves from KG-1 to KG-2 and from KG-2 to Std-1There is no report card from KG1 & KG 2 but a consolidated progress report based on the activities carried out by the child is recorded through the year and is handed to the next respective class. However, the school is willing to issue the report card at the end of this year to parents as well.

The parents request an update on the activities the teacher has planned for the coming term. The poems to be done, word list, show & tell theme etc. This will help them practice the same with the kids at home.
While a session plan is given to parents of higher classes, we were not following the practice of doing it for KG. However, now that the PSG has specifically requested it, it will be sent to parents from the October session onwards.

The need for a lesson plan is felt at KG-1 and KG-2 level. Wherein the kids should be taught use of “Magic words” like ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’ etc. The use of complete sentences while communicating, importance of forming a queue, personal cleanliness and basic moral lessons etc.The feedback from teachers is that they have been cultivating the habit of using Magic words. After this input from the PSG, more efforts have been made to reinforce politeness, cleanliness and moral values. Magic words were displayed in the classrooms. Teachers now include a moral class during circle time once a week.
School should plan activities like sports day / drama day for these kids too.
Children of KG 1 & 2 have been included in special assemblies such as I Day and Merdeka celebrations. A Sports Day is planned for this year, most likely in January.

An assistant is very much required in the class, as the teacher alone cannot handle the class.Thanks to the initiative of the PSG, parent volunteers have been coming in regularly and have proved to be a great help in the classroom. Not only do they assist during classes and craft activities, they have taken on responsibilities during field trips as well. The school would like to take the opportunity to thank the following parents for their support:Mrs. C. MeghnaMrs. Lalitha Kumari PeesapathyMrs. Nidhi BhargavaMrs. Sudipta DasMrs. Prabha VishvanathMrs. Sarasvathi Suppiah
No clarity on the day care facility organised by the school
The school does not have the space or resources for a day care facility at present.
A few students of KG1 & 2, at parents’ request, do remain in school until 2.30 p.m. and are looked after by the nurse.

Past PSG Comments - Standard 2

GPM date – 13th August 2007

Class – STD 2


Issues & Concerns voiced by the parents:



Administration

1. Toilets and classrooms are not clean.

2. Messages on phone are not conveyed. There are no fixed timings for the parents to come and collect books/uniforms or pay fees.

3. Photo - Identification cards are a must for all students.

4. School is seriously lacking on the communication front. Though it has an excellent system to interact with parents, it is not utilized optimally. Teachers rarely correspond or respond via email. Parents want more regular feedback from teachers, especially if it is a cause of concern on discipline or academic front, and not wait until the PTM.

5. Teacher – student ratio is very high. Teachers can’t seem to cope with the class. Need more teachers.
6. Lack of discipline – Students do not wear their uniforms properly, vulgar /rude words are been used in the school premises.
7. Location of class 2c is not convenient to the students. There seems to be no supervision when teachers are late to enter the class (2c).
8. Theft cases are on the rise among students. Some moral lessons should be imparted during assembly.
9. Many promises were made to the parents, when the school started its operations. The promised strength in each class was 24 students, which is not the case today. In fact the facilities are shrinking, the canteen is very small and many ECA/CCA rooms have been converted to classes. Can there be communication from the school as to when this situation will be reversed? Today the image the school of the school is more like “Global Kampong School” and not “international”

Transport

The drivers behave very rudely with students; sometimes they hit the students on the head. Students are transferred to other vans, mid-way in the afternoons and this is done in the middle of the road. Parents are worried about the safety of the students. During the journey to PE lesson, students are seen standing in the bus. Change of drivers is very frequent.

Academics
Parents would like to know whether before worksheets are given to the students, are the teachers teaching in the class the lesson. This is regarding the English worksheets e.g. Compound noun. Parents feel the worksheets are given without proper guidance in class. The instructions on the worksheets are very difficult to understand and seem to be of very high level for the students. It has become homework for parents. (English teacher – Mrs. George)
Math’s syllabus has not being properly planned because there seems to be no proper link on what is being taught. There has been a frequent change in teachers and each teacher is using a different method. Therefore parents feel that a standard method must be used. Students are doing work mentally and not showing the workings. Although worksheets are given , parents feels more practice should be done in the class.(Math’s teacher – Ms. Shatwath)
Teachers are rushing to finish the syllabus for the coming exam
In GK the topics given are too many. Sometimes although topics are given, questions are not from the said topics. This subject can be given a more interesting approach by having quiz in the class.
Hindi – there is no flow in the teaching. Too much to be covered within one session, no proper sequence in the method especially in teaching alphabets, some time should be allocated for conversational Hindi.
EVS can be taught in a more interactive manner.
Bahasa Malaysia- lack of foundation therefore students are finding it too difficult to understand. Parents are not satisfied with the teaching method.(Teacher- Ms. Mariamma)
Computer class- There seems to be no feedback from the teacher. Parents are totally in the dark has to what is being taught. Is the IT lab facility adequate; are there enough computers for the students?
In Sanskrit there have been very few lessons.
Is it possible to have double periods for main stream subjects like English, Math’s, and Science so that more practice can be done?
Can school provide remedial classes for students who are weak in certain subjects and who have moved from curriculum other than CBSE?

ECA / CCA / Club Activities
Club activities are not seriously taught, there are no proper timetable when classes like Chess, Carom and Scrabble are being held. Taekwondo classes are not organized there seem to be no grading for quite some time now. When it rains this class is being cancelled.
School should have Sports day.
Yoga Class – Too many students i.e. 50 in a class. Parents are concern because this is dangerous especially when a child is doing yoga for the first time. Maybe the class should be split/ there must be assistants.
Chess class – Too many students in the class. Parents have spoken to the teacher concern and the teacher himself admitted that he can’t cope with the large class.

Appreciation
Parents feel Ms. Raji of 2C is doing excellent job with her students.

Past PSG Comments - KG2

GPM date – 6th August 2007

Class – KG -2


Issues & Concerns voiced by the parents:


Administration

1. Classes are not clean. As these young kids work on the floor, it is not very hygienic.

2. Parents log-in not updated. Parameters like fees paid, timetable, HW, Worksheets carry no information.

3. Admin staff is not sensitive to parents, and have a very “Chalta Hai” attitude, which is very unlike the image India has on the global map today.

Messages on phone are not conveyed. There are no fixed timings for the parents to come and collect books/uniforms or pay fees.

4. Photo - Identification cards are a must for all students.



Transport

1. The bus ferrying students from Mont Kiara, has a very early pick-up and the kids are also dropped off very early to the school. The kids reach school at 7:30am. There are KG-2 students also in this bus.

Please re-schedule the morning pick-up timings for this bus and bring it a little forward, to give the students a little more time in the mornings. Parents will appreciate an early action on this front.


Academic

1. No PTM scheduled yet for KG-2 parents in this academic year.

2. Parents request a more detailed feedback on their wards. This feedback should be more on individual child’s personality from the teacher and should be documented and given to parents.

(Reporting similar to how it happens in KG-2 (Tulip) would be welcomed)

3. The parents request an update on the activities the teacher has planned for the coming term. The poems to be done, word list, show & tell theme etc. This will help them practice the same with the kids at home.

4. The need for a lesson plan is felt at KG-1 and KG-2 level. Wherein the kids should be taught use of “Magic words” like ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’ etc. The use of complete sentences while communicating, Phonic words, importance of forming a queue, personal cleanliness and basic moral lessons etc.

5. School should plan activities like sports day / drama day for these kids too.

Past PSG Comments - KG1

GPM date – 3rd August 2007

Class – KG -1


Issues & Concerns voiced by the parents:


Administration

1. Mail inviting parent-volunteers and the GPM-announcement mail was not received by many parents. This concern has been voiced by many parents across school, stating that they do not receive many mails sent by the school and only hear about it form other parents.

2. Classes are not clean. As these young kids work on the floor, it is not very hygienic.

3. Parents log-in not updated. Parameters like fees paid, timetable, HW, Worksheets carry no information.

4. Admin staff is not sensitive to parents. Messages on phone are not conveyed. There are no fixed timings for the parents to come and collect books/uniforms or pay fees. Parents request that the staff should be around at the following times 11:30 – 12noon and 2pm – 2:30pm as they come to pick up their wards around this time and would like to settle things like buying books / uniforms etc.

5. Photo - Identification cards are a must for all students.

6. No clarity on the day care facility organised by the school.


Academic

1. No PTM scheduled yet for KG-1 parents in this academic year.

2. Parents request a more detailed feedback on their wards. This feedback should be more on individual child’s personality from the teacher and should be documented and given to parents.

(Reporting similar to how it happens in KG-2 (Tulip) would be welcomed)

3. School to confirm whether they issue report card when the child moves from KG-1 to KG-2 and from KG-2 to Std-1

4. The parents request an update on the activities the teacher has planned for the coming term. The poems to be done, word list, show & tell theme etc. This will help them practice the same with the kids at home.

5. The need for a lesson plan is felt at KG-1 and KG-2 level. Wherein the kids should be taught use of “Magic words” like ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’ etc. The use of complete sentences while communicating, importance of forming a queue, personal cleanliness and basic moral lessons etc.

6. School should plan activities like sports day / drama day for these kids too.

7. An assistant is very much required in the class, as the teacher alone cannot handle the class.



Appreciation

1. Parents also appreciated, Mrs. Daljit and Mrs. Agnes who are doing an excellent job with the kids.

2. The school environment is very pleasant.

3. The kids love attending the school.

PSG Resignation Email - Oct 25th 2007

Dear Mrs Sharma & Manoj,

The PSG members have been very enthusiastic in their roles, to help bring the GIIS-community together.
The members themselves came in early every morning for 2 months to organise the drop-off. The system was successfully implemented.
Helped school organise parent volunteers for K1 and K2
Source Hindi and Tamil worksheets for beginners to be given to parents
Organise GPM class-wise. Conduct these meetings, which also meant to be at the receiving end from disgruntled parents.
Minute every meeting, forward the same to school in an organised fashion. This activity took PSG two months to conceptualise, put into action and deliver to school.
There are issues that PSG has been bringing to school's notice right from day one that it came into existence;
ID cards
School transport (bus permits validity??)
Bridging classes for students joining from other syllabus, which was promised to parents
Increasing class strength
Canteen size etc.
There has been no response at all on these issues. Promises have been made by Manoj ( which we conveyed to the parents),but not kept.

Parents are rightfully getting annoyed with PSG and feel no confidence in our representation. Hence all the members unanimously do not feel confident to carry on in this role/responsibility and are forced to resign.


regards
PSG

Latest Proposed letter to the School - Yet to be sent as of Nov 8th 2007

From: The Concerned Parents of GIIS Malaysia Students
To: Manoj Nair
Board of Directors
GIIS Malaysia

Dear Sir,
Re: Request for Management Attention to Resolve Fundamental Issues Faced By Parents
There are many reasons why we, the parents of GIIS Malaysia students enrolled our children in your school but perhaps the most pertinent of them all is that we share the vision of GIIS "To nurture the best and brightest GLOBAL students into men and women, who will be leaders of distinction committed to spirit of excellence, through high quality education imparted by globally experienced and caring teachers".
We would like to direct the attention of GIIS Malaysia management to issues that are a cause for concern related to transportation, security, class size and others. Until recently, we utilised the school appointed Parent Support Group (PSG) who moderated between parents and the school management.
We recognise the efforts of PSG who sacrificed time and energy to raise key issues through forums such as the GIIS Parent Meeting (GPM) as well as through informal channels such as e-mails and face to face communications.
It has come to our attention that the formally appointed Parent Support Group (PSG) has recently resigned (The attached e-mail is referred).
The issues raised by PSG in their resignation e-mail are resonated by many parents. In most professionally run schools, the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) is used as a formal channel to raise and resolve common & critical issues.
We, the paying parents of students in GIIS, feel neglected as we do not receive the appropriate attention of a private professional establishment of this stature. We do however understand the pressures felt by the Management of GIIS Malaysia in the last 1 year of the school start-up. As we now begin to settle into a routine, we sincerely hope that GIIS Malaysia school management will provide us this much needed forum with suitable follow up action to resolve key concerns.

Attached herewith are the following:
1. A letter from a group of parents stating key issues that require solutions
2. Selected minutes and somewhat vague responses from the recent GPM sessions
The front page of GIIS Malaysia site states
‘As a forward-thinking and academically ambitious school, with a strong international dimension, GIIS strives for an innovative and imaginative academic curriculum. Our academic life is complemented by attentive pastoral care and full and wide-ranging co-curricular and extra-curricular programmes.’
We expect that GIIS Malaysia lives up to this promise and allows us an avenue to express our concerns and thoughts in view of reaching a solution or minimally, a roadmap for a solution. It is critical that in these early years of formation, GIIS Malaysia demonstrates that it is clearly ahead of the rest of the pack of education systems in Malaysia so that the school establishes itself as a permanent, long term educational entity in Malaysia. We firmly believe that we all play a role in achieving this goal.
We would be grateful if a clear and positive response could be given by 1st week of December 2007.
We append with this letter, a list of signatures from a group of Malaysian, Indian & other Foreign parents that demonstrates our resolute and unity on this matter.

Thank You.
The Concerned Parents of GIIS Malaysia Students
c.c. Chairman, GIIS

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Defining Problems and Constraints at GIIS

Having been silent for a long time, I thought of sharing my views on GIIS. I recently shifted to KL and hence my son got in to GIIS in August. He studied earlier in Don Bosco Matunga, Mumbai which is one of the best educational institutes in India. The school paid a lot of attention (like most Jesuit schools) in overall development. Hence, having shifted here the difference was immediately noticed: The shift from Maharashtra State Board to CBSE itself is one huge change as CBSE is tougher on the child and more importantly there was hardly any activity in the school (though perceptually there is a lot going on in the School like music, dance, Taekwondo etc) whereas in Mumbai he had to trade off between Speech and Drama Classes v/s playing footbal v/s Music and Dance et.

My first reaction was that after having paid such huge fees why does my son get just a fraction of the facilities that he got in Mumbai. But, I also realised that the school, relatively newly started, is still struggling to put its infrastructure into place. I believe it is difficult for the school to find teachers (forget about being choosy about whether they are good or bad) in the first place, so you get teachers who are consistently changing or on leave, possibly because they are wives of expats or same teachers teaching multiple subjects despite not being adept at all of them.

We need to understand that there are problems and there are constraints. Problems can be overcome, but constraints cannot be. If we are facing lack of facilities then we need to get a clarification from the management as to whether it is because there is a genuine constraint or whether it is a problem and the management is simply taking no interest e.g. there may be employment caps on teachers working in Malaysia which means the school has to source teaching resources from Malaysia itself, but then does Malaysia have the resources? One can argue that if this is the case then why open a school at all. The point is that we as parents need to get a clear cut communication from the management as to what is the way ahead and how we can work together to solve it. The PSG should be an add-on to the existing infrastructure and not be to fill up voids within it. So it is important to understand the intent of the management (which I am sure will be good) and more importantly the efforts that it is putting in for the betterment of the students and where we could help e.g. could the expat Indians request the Malaysian govt. to relax immigration laws for teachers (This is just an example and may not in reality be the case)

Blog Ground Rules

This Blog was set up as a forum for GIIS Malaysia parents to exchange views and present a collective way forward for the school to take into consideration.

The aim is to improve the schooling environment and quality of education. This Blog shall not be used for personal attacks, unsubstantiated claims, malicious comments and other forms of unconstructive usage.

Everyone should remember that all rules and courtesies that we apply in normal life apply in the virtual world as well and every person who publishes his/her comments is responsible for their own words, not the Blog owner.

Further it is important to highlight that posting anonymously does not provide any protection as the IT world is not really "anonymous".