JEDDAH – A seasoned diplomat, who devoted 11 years of his long career in Saudi Arabia for serving the Haj pilgrims and ensuring quality education for the younger generation of the Indian community, was accorded a warm send off by the managing committee (MC) and staff members of the International Indian School – Jeddah (IISJ) at the Girls Section auditorium on Tuesday. Addressing the farewell party, Indian Consul General B.S Mubarak applauded Mohammed Raghib Qureshi, the outgoing consul (education), head of chancery and school observer, for his dynamic skills of handling complex problems in the education field by calling him the ‘Nightwatchman' of a cricket innings. Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Qureshi said quality education is close to his heart and as such during his third tenure at the consulate, he dedicated fully to make available of the best ever education to the children of the one million-strong Indian community in the western region of the Kingdom stretching from Tabuk to Najran. The speakers at the farewell party included Mohammed Abdul Raziq, chairman of MC, Principal Syed Masood Ahmed, and Vice Principal of the Girls Section Farhatunnisa. They recounted the countless extraordinary situations where the indomitable spirit of Qureshi helped the institutions and organizations to sail through challenges. On behalf of himself and members of MC, Abdul Raziq expressed his overwhelming regards and appreciation for Qureshi's untiring support and guidance to MC in all its endeavors while Ahmed and Farhatunnisa expressed their feelings of regards and gratitude, acknowledging with immense humility, his unstinting support to IISJ, its staff and students throughout his tenure. The program started with recitation of a few verses from the Holy Qur'an by MC member Abdul Khaleeq. In his speech, Qureshi recalled his intimate association with IISJ for more than three years. Speaking about his experience as the school observer, Qureshi expressed his inclination towards education. Highlighting the achievements during his tenure, he appreciated MC members for their efforts in working towards the expansion of the school and having succeeded in upgrading the classrooms into smart ones. He also appreciated the school staffers and parents for their whole-hearted efforts to score excellence in curricular and co-curricular realms. "When I took over as head of chancery, IISJ had a nominated MC and hence efforts were made to have an elected committee. The MC has made remarkable achievements under the presidency of Dr. Haroon Rasheed and Abdul Raziq, and a lot of new changes and developments have been made," he said. Qureshi drew attention to the efforts being exerted and achievements being made in improving the quality of education and expanding the facilities. "The new MC is doing commendable work in realizing the long cherished dream of the new campus so as to accommodate more children in IISJ, which has laurels as the best school in Jeddah," he said while thanking MC and the school staff for their cooperation and support to him. Qureshi told Saudi Gazette that it is painful for him to leave Jeddah as he has had a lot of intense emotions attached to the city. Qureshi, perhaps the longest serving diplomat at the Jeddah consulate, joined the consulate in 1985 as vice consul in Haj section, and his second tenure was in the Makkah office of the consulate as vice consul from 1995 to 2000. Deeply associated with the services of the Indian Haj mission, he worked during 18 Haj seasons, for which he came on deputation many a times. "Even while serving Haj pilgrims, I had an inclination to do service in the educational field and that was realized during my third tenure as education consul. As education is very close to my heart, I tried to give the best education for my children and wanted to ensure very good education to other children of the community also." Qureshi, who worked to improve the educational facilities and standard in the Western region, lauded the excellent performance of IISJ. "I tried my best to positively contribute to various activities of IISJ, including searching for new buildings and increase strength of school to cater to the huge demand of the community. My firm conviction is that every Indian child has a right to pursue study at this school, which is a great asset of the community." Referring to the demand for a community school in Makkah, he said that he made some efforts toward meeting the demand of the community members in the holy city. "While I was in Makkah, there was a very difficult time for my children to come to Jeddah and going back, wasting two to three hours daily for travel. I feel very bad for all children from Makkah who had to wake up early in the morning at 5 to reach Jeddah," he said while urging the MC to speed up efforts to open a school in Makkah. Qureshi also spoke about the efforts to improve the administration and quality of education at the international Indian schools in Tabuk and Taif, in addition to several private schools in the region. "There has been a new committee in Tabuk, which is doing good work and constructed 16 new class rooms and planning to construct more rooms to cater the needs of community. The Taif school has been upgraded to 12 grades now and has a CBSE center for examination." "There was a proposal for opening a school in Yanbu but the community is not in a position to have the necessary finances for the same. We are hopeful, in future, the school will be materialized. There is a demand for school in Abha, and IISJ Principal Syed Masood recently visited Abha in this respect and we are hopeful to have it in near future." Qureshi will leave Jeddah on Dec. 14 to take up the new assignment of consul and director of Indian cultural center at the Indian embassy in Mexico. His three sons are living in the United States.
