Syeda Amtul Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – Indian Ambassador and Patron of International Indian School Jeddah (IISJ) Hamid Ali Rao, while congratulating the students for their outstanding performance in both academic and co-curricular fields, said schools are just platforms for students to realize their full potential. He was speaking to a goodly audience at the IISJ boy's section's auditorium Thursday during the 45th Annual Prize Day of IISJ. Rao was the chief guest while Indian Consul General Bawa Syed Mubarak was the guest of honor. Rao, while lauding the efforts of students, parents and teachers of the school for their efforts in achieving 100 percent results in CBSE examinations for the fourth consecutive year, said in this knowledge-based era, where innovation is key, the spirit of questioning and arriving at a solution should be the basic approach to learning. “It is the task of the teachers to inculcate this spirit that would make them (students) think and come up with solutions,” he said, while adding that it is important that they have the facilities which allow them to experiment to do different things and to define their own path. He said: “Consider yourself very fortunate to be citizens of India today — which is a old civilization and a young nation. It is a civilization that teaches us to treasure values, and a young nation that abounds with youths like you. Youth are in great majority and we can see energy all around in India, it is the task for those who are responsible including the schools to ensure or to help in directing this energy to positive work, to positive thinking. If they succeeded in doing that then I think that would be not only good for the individual, for the students, but for our country as a whole.” He also called on schools to focus on India quiz contests, which would help students stay connected with India. “I would be happy to know that such contests are an annual feature in every community school,” he said, adding a rule-based, transparent system to decide things should be the order of the day in the day-to-day running of an institution. “It has not been easy for me to bring in those rules to develop institutions but I remain determined that this is the path we have to follow in establishing a fair institution, in which each and every one is confident that justice would be done to him in a transparent and objective manner,” he said while praising IISJ for being run in a transparent manner. Rao said: “I am the first servant for doing things, ensuring things which are right and encouraging you to do that. If you think something wrong is going on, and I can be helpful in correcting that, then I shall always be present.” Earlier, Consul General Mubarak lauded the fact that “having more than 50,000 Indian students in Indian community schools in Saudi Arabia is itself a tribute to the community, the management of the schools and also to government of India.” “I think getting such quality education at an affordable price is hardly seen in any other country,” Mubarak said. Going down memory lane, Mubarak said: “In my times, the very mantra of education was ‘one size that fits all,' it was an education which was basically aimed at an industrial economy but today's economy is an innovative economy in which concept building and creativity are the keys.” He said these were the fundamentals of modern education system in most developed countries, and citied the example Finland as the top ranked country in OECD. “Finland emerged as the top OECD country because they concentrated on three aspects of learning — Sciences applied to solve day to day issues; Math again used to solve day to day issues; and ready comprehension — which enabled creative thinking and concept building.” Mubarak, while elucidating on the evolving nature of education, highlighted the growth in open source education, with the web as a medium. He illustrated the work of “Khan Academy” in this regard. Educator Salman Khan uploaded more than 4,000 educational videos in his academy, and he has developed a program to assess children, to highlight their strength and weakness to enable educators to concentrate on the students' weaknesses and develop them all round. “Many schools in developed countries are now following his model,” he added. He rounded off his words of encouragement and advice with the mode the MNCs now apply in recruiting staff. “The MNCs today see primarily in an aspirant what value you can add to the firm. They look for cognitive ability; emergent leadership and whether you are a team player. For this we need to gear our system I such a way that we equip our students with these qualities.” Raghib Qureshi, consul education and school observer, too earlier had congratulated the students, parents, teachers and principal. “The marvelous success and excellent results of the school goes to prove the excellent level of education in the school and the passion of the students, parents and teacher in achieving this result. It is your determination which has brought success to you.” He added: “Teachers played a great role for achieving this success by devoting extra hours in special classes without caring for their personal comforts or financial benefits. The teachers have created an environment that encourages students to learn by themselves. I also call on students to follow your dreams. But first set your goals to turn the invisible into visible.” Dr. Haroon Rashid, management committee chairman, said: “The 100% results for the 4th consecutive year is a collective achievement —the effort of students, teachers, parents and non-teaching staff of the school.” He emphasized on the need for higher education for girls and also called on the parents of girls to give them wings to study further. Principal Masood Ahmed, in his welcome address, said IISJ is enjoying its 45 years of excellence while presenting the academic report of 2013-14. He briefed all about the students activities, learning process along with academic criteria stressing that the school was focused on qualitative and quantitative education. He praised the teachers efforts in enhancing the learning process and commented on the school's sports activities. He also commended the students and teachers for the school's fantastic achievement. Later, Rao and other dignitaries gave away awards to the meritorious students of different grades, as well as to teachers. A vote of thanks was delivered by Vice Principal Najib Qais.
