Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The International Indian School-Jeddah (IISJ) is hosting two major events in the coming days — the 25th annual conference of the principals, as well as the second phase of the 25th Cluster Meet of the schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). In an interview with Saudi Gazette, IISJ Principal Syed Masood Ahmed said that it is a great matter of pride and honor for his school to host the two big events in one week. Around 40 principals of the Indian and international schools across the Kingdom will meet in Jeddah in the silver jubilee year of the Saudi Arabian Chapter of the principals of CBSE schools. There are more than 70,000 students enrolled to these schools. Ahmed said Indian Consul General B.S. Mubarak will inaugurate the principals' conference at IISJ Boys' section auditorium at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. Somayya Jabarti, editor in chief of Saudi Gazette, will have an interactive session with the principals on the theme of the conference "Education for peace and development," at 2 p.m. on the opening day. Dr. Ismail Maritheri of King Abdulaziz University, included among the dignitaries, will also be addressing the conference. The three-day event will have brainstorming sessions on several common issues, in addition to analyzing the overall academic progress and curricula related topics, and will come out with plans for the next session. Hemant Kotalwar, the Charge d'Affaires at the Indian Embassy in Riyadh will preside over the valedictory function of the conference on Oct. 26. Regarding the theme of the Silver Jubilee session of the conference, Ahmed said that is a very relevant and important theme in the present scenario. "Peace and development are always relevant to education. The main stress of education in ancient Indian, Greek philosophies was to bring out the best within the child so as to develop children as persons useful to the society and the country, besides enabling them to contribute to overall development of the country and peaceful coexistence of the people of all faiths," he said. Ahmed said the conference will have special brainstorming sessions on promoting peace and development. We will publish a booklet containing the outcome of the conference and will distribute it among all the participating schools so as to impart its sublime message and concrete visions to the younger generation." Ahmed said that the IISJ feels proud and excited on holding the conference. "The three-million strong Indian community and academics all over the Kingdom have very high expectations from the conference and we are striving to come up to their expectations by the grace of God. IISJ always maintains a tradition of conducting functions in the best manner, thanks to our team who swings into action like a well-oiled machine for both events," he said. According to Ahmed, the Cluster Meet -Phase II will be opened by Kotalwar on Oct. 26 at 4.00 p.m. in the Boys' Section. About 900 participants along with their team mangers are expected to come from all over the Kingdom to attend the second and final phase. It may be noted that the Phase – I, which was held in June included football, volleyball, basketball (Boys) and badminton. The second phase of the meet scheduled from Oct. 26 to 29 includes athletics, table tennis and basketball (Girls). The athletic events of Boys will be conducted at King Abdullah Sports City. Winners of the Cluster Meet in all these events qualify to participate in the CBSE National Meet scheduled to be held in India. All the preparations and arrangements are going on well. "We have booked around 75 apartments for the Cluster Meet participants. We have so many sub committees, including those for reception, logistics, transport, ground duty and field arrangements, and each committee is headed by a supervisor." "Each supervisor conducted several meetings and are making contacts with participating team managers. We do hope all goes well." IISJ is holding the Cluster Meet after a gap of five years. Private schools do not have the required infrastructure and so the burden of conducting the meet is on community schools. Indian International schools of Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah and Jubail are hosting the meet every year on a rotation basis. IISJ was supposed to hold the meet last year but were unable to do so because of unavoidable circumstances and so Dammam and Jubail schools jointly conducted the meet. Dammam School is the defending overall boys' champion while IISJ Girls was the girls' overall champion.
