Indian Schools in Qatar organized CBSE Gulf Sahodaya Principals Conference in Bangalore from 2nd to 5th January 2019 with a theme “Our Children Deserve More…”. The Gulf Sahodaya has 174 Indian schools in six GCC Countries as members. The conference was well supported by the school managements of all the Indian Schools in Qatar.
The resource persons for the rich educational sessions of the conference were Padma Bhushan Dr. B. M. Hegde, Cardiologist, Medical Scientist, Educationist, Author and the former Vice-Chancellor of Manipal University, Mr. Deepak Vohra, renowned and highly successful Indian Diplomat, Padma Shri Dr. Mylswamy Annadurai, former director of ISRO, programme and director of Chandrayaan-1, Chandrayaan-2, and Mangalyaan, Mr. Anil Swarup, former Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of India, and promoting “Nexus of Good” and Dr. Jitendra Nagpal, Senior Consultant, mental health and child psychologyMr. Syed Sultan Ahmed, 1st generation social entrepreneur and winner of six President of India’s National Film Awards, advisor to MHRD, CIET-NCERT, and educator transforming education through School Cinema, ‘Krayon’, and ‘Mentor’ through sharing educational ideas, and Mr. Saiju Aravind, Former DRDO Scientist turned educationist, pioneer of BUILD (Brain Utilisation in Learning and Development) programme. Meaningful interactions with the resource persons enriched and rejuvenated all the school leaders to be better change leaders.
The special guests from CBSE, Dr. Joseph Emmanuel, Director – Academics, Dr. Biswajit Saha, Director – Skill Education and Training, Shri. J. K. Yadav, Regional Officer – Delhi, and Shri. K. Srinivasan, Regional Officer – Chennai interacted with the principals and shared the future plans of the CBSE towards improvement of curriculum standards and examinations. They also promised better communication with the schools in the gulf and speedy solutions to the problems faced by these schools. The message from Ms. Anita Karwal, IAS, Chairperson of CBSE was presented for the Principals.
A panel discussion on the conference theme “Our Children Deserve More …” by Principals representing the six GCC Countries was moderated by Mr. A. P. Sharma, Principal of Birla Public School Doha. Mrs. Asna Nafees, Principal of DPS-Modern Indian School Doha, was the panel member from Qatar. Chapter best practices for promoting excellence in education were shared. The best practices of the Qatar Chapter were presented by Mr. Vinod Bhatia (Doha Modern Indian School). Principals of 11 Indian Schools in Qatar who participated and organized the conference were Mrs. Hameeda Kadar (MES), Mr. Syed Shoukath Ali (Ideal Indian School),
Dr. Subhash Nair (Shantiniketan Indian School), Mrs. Asna Nafees (DPS-MIS), Mr. A. P. Sharma (BPS), Mr. Vinod Bhatia (DMIS), Mr. Shibu Abdul Rasheed (Noble International School), Mr. M. P. Philip (Bhavan’s Public School), Mrs. Manjari, (Pearl School), Mr. P. K. V. Prasad (Loyola International School) and Mr. Jacob K. M. (Olive International School).
The Council of CBSE Affiliated Schools in the gulf is renamed as ‘CBSE Gulf Sahodaya’.
Mr. Premkumar, Principal of Indian Education School Kuwait, is inducted as the Chairman, Dr. Subhash Nair, Principal of Shantiniketan Indian School as the Secretary, and Mr. Shibu Abdul Rasheed, Principal of the Noble International School as the Qatar Chapter Convener of the Gulf Sahodaya for the year 2019-20. The delegates in a feedback survey rated the conference as highly effective and well organized.
