The committee members of the proposed Dammam Sri Lankan International School with Ministry of Education MoE officials Abdullah Al-Salim (manager foreign schools-EP), fourth left; Awad Al-Malili (assistant manager), fifth left, Hussein Maqbool (supervisor international schools-EP), sixth left; and school committee chairman K. Mohammad Ameer.

It’s good news for all Sri Lankans in the Eastern Province as the Ministry of Education (MoE) has issued a license to the community in Dammam to operate a school in the region.

Thanking the MoE for its decision, Sri Lankan Ambassador Azmi Thassim told Arab News that it was a long-felt need for the Lankan community in the EP. There are around 400 families in the region, and around 700 children go to various other schools in the province.

The envoy said that arrangements will be worked out from January next year and a committee appointed to set up a school. The institution should be able to commence its sessions from the next academic year, he said.

“We are a multi-religious community and the school will be a good platform for Sri Lankans to meet and greet each other and organize educational and cultural meetings in the school,” the ambassador said.

A seven-member committee, headed by K. Mohammed Ameer, is making the arrangements for the school to take off next year.

Saboor Adem, secretary to the committee, said the Sri Lankan community in the EP is thankful to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh for it cooperation with the committee in setting up the school.

Some Sri Lankan children are not going to school due to the high fees. “Our aim is to operate the school in a manner which is affordable to the parents from different economic backgrounds,” he said.

Besides Adem, the members of the committee include Munaf Mohammed, Mohammed Khaleel (committee vice-chairmen), K. Mohammad Ameer (committee chairman), S.M. Saheel, Jebarullah M. Haneefa and Yoosuf A. Lebbe (members).

The proposed school will be the third Sri Lankan International School in the Kingdom. The first one was opened in Riyadh on an initiative taken by the late Aboobucker Lebbe Mohamed Hashim, the former ambassador, and the second was inaugurated in Jeddah during the period of Izzet Ahamed, former ambassador.

There are around 550,000 Sri Lankans living in the Kingdom, which is one third of the island’s workers’ population in the Middle East.

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