Hassan Cheruppa

Saudi Gazette

The senior secondary teachers of the International Indian School-Jeddah (IISJ) have received letters of appreciation from India’s Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani for their dedication and excellent academic performance.



Irani has sent letters of congratulations to around 50 teachers following the school’s stellar performance in the Grade XII examination of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). IISJ broke all its previous records with a 100 percent success rate in the examination for four years in a row.



Irani said in her letter: “I thank you for your commitment and dedication, and salute your efforts to positively influence the next generation which will take our country to new heights. I look forward to working with you to ensure that the culture of excellence and innovation that you exemplify becomes synonymous with education in India.”



The minister also underscored the pivotal role of teachers in the all-round development of students’ personality, the ultimate goal of education. “I firmly believe that it is the teacher that plays the most critical role in influencing the minds and personalities of young students, enabling them to discover their talents and preparing them to succeed in any challenge they undertake,” she said.



Congratulating the IISJ teachers, Mohammad Raghib Qureshi, head of chancery and consul for education, said that it is very encouraging for teachers. “It is wonderful to see that the IISJ teachers are giving top priority to bring out maximum academic output. They put in hard work despite odds,” he told Saudi Gazette. Qureshi said the teachers concentrate on achieving excellent results through holding special classes and giving personal attention to students by setting aside their own personal matters. These are great and commendable steps that yielded outstanding results,” he said while noting that it is remarkable to bring out such results even though student-teacher ratio is much above the ideal level. Qureshi advised teachers to maintain the quality and standard in addition to efforts to further improving it.



He also noted that the process to find a new campus is ongoing. The managing committee is working on it seriously and the consulate is extending all support to the initiative.



Dr. Haroon Rasheed, chairman of the managing committee, congratulated the teachers for the appreciation from the minister. “On behalf of the managing committee, I congratulate the teachers and extend them full support to scale new heights of academic excellence. It is the best efforts of our teachers, parents and students that enabled the school to steal the glory with such a radiant record,” he said.



“We are excited at the honor”



International Indian School-Jeddah (IISJ) Principal Syed Masood Ahmed voiced his delight and joy over the receipt of letters of appreciation from the government of India. The minister’s appreciation will go a long way in highly motivating the teachers in continuing doing their hard work to further improve our academic excellence.



Speaking to Saudi Gazette Ahmed said: “Our secret of success is the hard work of dedicated teachers plus the cooperation and support from the managing committee and parents. The teachers are now in a highly motivated state of mind. Their initiative is on their own and they need not to be told what to do and what not to do. Always they go the extra mile in maintaining excellent results, and that ensured a legacy of 100 percent result for the fourth consecutive year. It is the result of dedicated and collective efforts of all teachers. The management is there to support us and parents with their full cooperation. The minister’s appreciation is the result of collective efforts, dedication, commitment and above all excellent teamwork. We are proud of it.”



The soft-spoken principal was outspoken when he explained his ambitious plans to take IISJ to new heights of glory. IISJ focuses not simply on conducting classes and examination. Our motto is to prepare students for life by enabling them to cope with the potential challenges that they have to face, and as such we are carrying out dozens of activities aimed at students’ personality development, improvement of communication skills, and readying them for community service. We explore all avenues for their all-round development. We work as a team to achieve this, especially to improve their leadership qualities and talents,” he said, while citing that the school’s head boy Hurairah Chorghay and Tamarah G. Khan were among the school’s toppers in Grade 12 exam this year.



Ahmed said IISJ is making all efforts to provide the students a big exposure to the community. “We are fully aware of the fact that all the students in the Gulf are not as exposed to community as the students back at home. We have tried to reciprocate and compensate as far as possible and when it is possible. IISJ students do not suffer as much challenge as their counterparts in other GCC countries. He cited an example for this. ‘Two of our students, including Wasim Latief, head boy of 2012-2013, got selection to NIT Warangal and in the first year examination itself they excelled all other students from the Gulf. They were among the top ten in the whole NIT. We arrange internship for students. We use all possible efforts for exposure and social service.’”



Ahmed said the school authorities are not complacent following the 100 percent result. We want to further improve the quality and for which we have our strategies and plans. Teachers have their own micro programs to raise the standard.



Ahmed continued: “We have very ambitious plans. These include a plan to tie up with entrance coaching institutions back in India to prepare students for competitive exams. We are contacting reputable coaching institutions for which we have sought consent from parents. Two years back, we had a tie up with one of the coaching centers in Kerala but that time the response from the parents was not as much encouraging as we had expected, and then the time lapsed. We sent circulars and had detailed interactive sessions with parents seeking their consent but the minimum strength that was required for starting the course was not achieved. Earlier, some of the parents had the view that they were easily getting seats in NRI quota. Again we are trying and parents are now more aware of this. I think hopefully within a short time we are going to accomplish this.”



Ahmed announced that IISJ will be the Kingdom’s second center for CBSE’s General Math Olympiad slated for December. “Last year we applied for it as our students had difficulties to travel to Dammam, the only center in KSA to appear for the Olympiad. Today we received the letter from the Board approving Jeddah as a center,” he added.