We the teachers of Bhavans Kuwait, both IES and SIS, are terribly disappointed by the blatant lies circulating in the social media and false petitions filed on various platforms, supported and stretched further by a group of people who claim to be parents of Bhavans.  Hence, this is a counter petition filed against those unscrupulous individuals who disguising themselves as Bhavans parents have ventured into social bullying without knowing the ground reality. Most of the people who have signed the petition with hidden identity have ulterior motives, to tarnish the image of Bhavans, a 14-year-old school, which has established its firm hold in the field of quality education, against the schools that have been functioning in Kuwait for 30-60 years.

It is high time that the social bullying stopped. Bhavans has always been the first school to take up new initiatives and others followed suit. The Chairman of the school, who always thinks in the best interest of the students, suggested online classes for our students of grades 10 and 12 first, and then for the children in the school during the lockdown period. Under the guidance of the expert Principals, the SLT, the IT department, and the Faculty Heads sprang into action, held meetings regularly, decided modules and spent hours meeting the parents and students online. We teachers worked 24/7 equipping ourselves to take up the new challenges. We also accommodated the requests and suggestions of our parents to have morning and evening classes to suit their convenience. Bhavans was the first school to initiate home delivery of books (it involves man power to arrange more than 600 packets, and then to reach it to various destinations in the lockdown situation). At this juncture it was imperative to get the pending funds collected, which was due not for a month or for a term or two, but as many as for three long years. Yes, this time Bhavans took a firmer hold to retrieve the pending money (which was the relaxation given by the Chairman to those who had expressed their difficulties in the past), the well-deserved money for the services offered.  No one should choose a school if they are not able to meet the expenses or feel pinched while paying the fees. The school does not take the ownership of waving off the prior dues of any child or a few children because here every child is equal.

Most of the schools in Kuwait had collected the book fee for the new academic session much  before the schools had closed down. Bhavans did not ask the parents for any such remittances.

We have a very approachable management and a benevolent Chairman who always puts students before anything else. Parents have been given fee exemptions in the past whenever they had approached the chairman with their difficulties. This, a parent has clearly stated in the petitioner’s forum. Hence the disparaging allegations are only intended to tarnish the image of a reputed institution and the management, and to bring down the morale of everyone involved. This sort of social bullying will have detrimental effects on the minds of children of these like-minded people, in whichever institution they may be studying in. They too will grow up to learn the art of social bullying.

In Bhavans most of the teachers are recruited from India, with handsome salaries, and are provided accommodation by the school. We teachers are working 24/7 and our work has increased beyond the normal working hours since the lockdown has started.  We do not simply send worksheets and videos. It is teaching, and it involves a great deal of preparation. Preparing interactive PowerPoints and effective modules and getting feedback from our superiors, improving it again takes a whole lot of time. Training has always been a yearlong process at our school. We are very well-trained to use the most effective and latest methodologies, technology and to use the finest form of pedagogy, that anyone of us will be recruited without an interview by any other school in Kuwait. (Some of our colleagues didn’t want to take up the onus of longer working hours shouldering the responsibility of the school in imparting quality education. They wanted to make more money with lesser working hours, and for this reason they chose to leave Bhavans. We consider those colleagues the brand ambassadors of our school.)

In this crisis situation we teachers cannot be sent on vacation like the companies do to cut down the cost. Our management has to pay us, the teachers, the non-teaching staff and others. The management has to take care of our accommodation as well. Moreover, the management does not run any other business to fund the school activities. If the parents don’t pay the fees, the management cannot meet the expenses. If there are other schools running online classes free of cost or at reduced fees anyone is free to leave. Without doing this if anyone chooses to continue, and then demean our institution and our management, it is nothing beyond social harassment. We teachers stand united to say that this kind of social bullying intended to defame Bhavans Kuwait has to be stopped instantly.