Saudi Gazette The goal of education is to be redefined in a way helping children to develop a clear mind and a clean heart in a healthy body rather than the set goal of creating a healthy mind in a healthy body, according to India's top diplomat in the Kingdom. Ambassador Ahmed Javed made the remarks while addressing students and teachers of International Indian School-Jeddah (IISJ) on Thursday. The IISJ managing committee (MC) and staff organized the function to welcome the new ambassador, who is the patron of Indian schools in the Kingdom. In a highly inspiring speech, Javed shared with the IISJ students and staff his success mantra during the nearly four-decades long career until retiring from service as one of the top police officers in the world's largest democracy. "Success is not to be measured on what we have achieved but how we have achieved, and as such both the means and end are equally important. From my four-decades long experience as a public servant, I can say that if you have a clear and clean intention, you can achieve what you have set out for, and taking shortcuts always land you in some trouble or the other," he said while emphasizing that transparency and promptness are key to success in any profession. According to Javed, the IISJ teachers have to play a critical role in developing an all-round personality in conjunction with the situation at home and with the support of parents. "Teachers and parents should have equal involvement in creating an environment where children would be given an exposure to make the right choices and develop them as ideal citizens who are good and honest in their words, deeds and intentions." Javed said the immense contributions being made by the Indian diaspora, who make up one third of the total number of expatriates in Saudi Arabia, to the Kingdom's nation-building process have won accolades from the top Saudi leadership. "In interactions with our Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to the Kingdom, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and other leaders applauded the Indian community's contributions to the Kingdom. The Indian economy is one of the best performing economies in the world today, and the Indian community in the Kingdom has been playing a great role in achieving this great status," he said. "The prime minister raised the problems in obtaining visas for Indian school teachers with the highest Saudi authorities," Javed said while hoping that this issue would be resolved soon. Javed congratulated the MC, principal and teaching and non-teaching staff of IISJ for the school's outstanding performance in both curricular and co-curricular fields. "It is heartening to note that IISJ, which had a humble start as the first embassy school in the Kingdom, is consistently and progressively doing extremely well in academic and sports events. The embassy is keen on providing affordable quality education to the community members." Javed also congratulated the brilliant artistic performance staged by students of the school as a token of honor on the occasion of his visit. The cultural fiesta that followed included a welcome song by dozens of children, a classical dance performance and a mime show by girl students and folk dance by boy students showcasing the ethos of India's cultural diversity. Earlier, the function began with the recitation of a few verses from the Holy Qur'an by Dr. Mansour and its translation by Muhammad Imran. Mohammed Abdul Raziq, chairman of MC, welcomed the gathering. In his speech, Abdul Raziq explained the MC's efforts to further boost the performance of the school despite many constraints and impediments. Principal Syed Masood Ahmed said the team work of school management and staff, with the support of parents and children, is the strength of IISJ in scoring excellent results in both curricular and co-curricular fields. He also spoke about the vigorous drive to incorporate advanced technology into the curriculum and citied introduction of 138 smart classrooms as an example. Ahmed shed light on consistent efforts being made to improve the academic proficiency of teachers through various programs. IISJ's first desk calendar was released by Shabnam Javed, wife of Ambassador Javed. The dignitaries who attended the function also included
