JEDDAH: International Indian School Jeddah (IISJ) is all set to host the final stage of the 20th Inter-School Cluster Meet and the Principals' Conference of the Saudi Arabian Chapter of the CBSE-affiliated schools from Nov. 7 to 10. The Cluster Meet for boys and girls would be a four-day affair while the principals' conference would be completed in two days, according to IISJ Principal Syed Masood Ahmed, who gave the details of the event at a press conference at IISJ, which was attended by Dr. M.S. Kareemudeen, Higher Board Member, CBSE-affiliated Schools in the Kingdom; Ayub Shaikh, Controller of Examinations; Dr. Najeeb Qais, Vice Principal; and C. Paul Joy, Headmaster, Open School. Of the 27 CBSC-affiliated schools in the Kingdom, 23 schools have confirmed participation this year and 668 students – 415 boys and 253 girls – will vie for honors in athletics (boys and girls), table tennis (boys and girls), basketball (boys) and debate (boys and girls). The winners of the meet will be eligible to take part in the National CBSC Meet which would be conducted at different cities in India. The meet will be inaugurated at the boys school premises at 4.45 P.M. at a colorful ceremony which will be later followed by cultural programs and managers' meeting in the evening. Officials from the Ministry of Education, Embassy of India and Indian Consulate are expected to grace the ceremony. The mascot of the meet is the Bengal tiger named “Shera”. The principals' conference will be inaugurated by Talmiz Ahmed, Ambassador of India, on Monday. Competitions will be conducted in three different age groups such as Under-14, Under-16 and Under-19 in all the disciplines other than basketball, which is only for boys, and debate, which is categorized into juniors and seniors. Athletics for boys will be conducted at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here. All the other events will be held at the IISJ boys and girls grounds and auditoriums. Competitions in football, volleyball and badminton were held in May. Ghouse Mohiuddin, Head of the Physical Education Department of IISJ, is the general secretary of the Cluster Meet. He will be assisted by other physical education teachers Rasheed Alikkal (organizing secretary, boys), Vijender Singh (organizing secretary, girls), Ranjit Kaur (assistant organizing secretary, girls) and Reshma Simros (assistant organizing secretary, girls). The next Cluster Meet would be hosted by IISJ Jubail. The event has been conducted by IIS Riyadh, IIS Dammam, IIS Jeddah and IIS Jubail on rotation basis. This year's meet will come to a close on Nov. 10 afternoon.
