Thursday 09 / January / 2025
Muscat: With tough economic times in Oman meaning many families cannot pay their children’s school fees, Indian School Muscat’s alumni association has decided to step in.
Some 1,000 students across the Sultanate – which includes about 350 students at ISM – currently receive financial aid to cover the cost of their school education, and the ISM Alumni Association (ISMA) hopes to fund at least 50 months’ worth of education before expanding it further, and will organise a charity cricket match to raise funds.
The tournament will be held on Friday, April 6, at the Amerat Cricket Grounds, which are managed by Oman Cricket and conform to International Cricket Council specifications.
“ISM is our home, we learned the good and the bad, the right and the wrong, and this place is special to us,” said Mukund Manohar, president of ISMA.
“What we do at work today is what our teachers taught us. It is very important to give back to that educational institution that has taught us so much. It’s everybody’s duty to give back to their educational institution.
“The costs of many items and services have increased,” he added. “A lot of families do suffer from this economic impact, and nobody wants to stop education, because this is a right and something that all parents want to give. I am sure they want to find a way to get some help to pay for their children to learn.”
ISM – the Sultanate’s largest Indian School, in terms of student numbers – has over 2,000 alumni in Oman, and 40,000 ex-students across the world, and Mukund and his team have had no shortage of volunteers looking to give back to their alma mater and help those in need.
ISMA are exploring two methods of aiding disadvantaged children. The first allows donors to purchase a year-long scholarship for a child, and another programme allows them to sponsor a child for a shorter period.
Aishwarya Hegde, joint secretary for ISMA, added, “Our goal is to facilitate giving back, because there are so many who want to give back, but don’t know how to get that process started. We understand the economic difficulties that parents have, and schools also have limitations because of the number of students. In the recent past, for example, you’ve seen two shifts for students, which leads to overworked teachers.
“Financial assistance may not go all the way, but it will help solve some problems,” she said.
“ISMA strongly believes that there must be a scholarship programme in place to help students. We want to put our funds in a way that this wouldn’t just be a one-off activity, but create a programme that happens regularly. There are many alumni who want to help but don’t live in Oman, so we want to make it easy for them to send the funds.”
A part of giving back to students also includes setting up a mentorship programme to put them in touch with alumni who are doing well in their careers.
Tanu Bheda, secretary for ISMA, added: “When I was growing up, I didn’t really have someone to tell me how to pursue my career, if I wanted to. The idea of mentorship was to be able to fill the space between students and teachers, where they could come to us about preparing for their careers or university. A lot of students don’t know what to ask or whom to ask. What we are also trying to do is get people to go outside the box of pursuing stereotypical careers, because we now have very successful alumni, who are running rock bands, who are artists, sound engineers and musicians.
“If, for example, students want to go to a particular university, we can put them in touch with those who went there so they can find out more,” she said. “School is comfortable and Oman is home, but many of us go overseas to study and step outside our comfort zone. It’s through helping these students that we connect with them.”
