Jeddah, March 01: A Jeddah-based teacher, Shahmida Mohammed, has won a gold medal for her outstanding performance in MA English from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Saudi Arabia.
This is the fourth consecutive year that a local IGNOU masters student has been awarded a gold medal. “If you keep your eyes on the prize, it’ll be yours in the end,” said an excited and thrilled Mohammed on Sunday. “I am a proud daughter, sister, wife, mother and teacher today. I am truly thrilled to be the fourth gold medalist in MA English at IGNOU Saudi Arabia. And I did it for my mom and dad, who deserve the medal more than me,” she told the media.
Mohammed is presently working as a teacher at Peace Public School in Jeddah. She did her bachelor’s degree in physics from Ansar Women’s College in the southern Indian state of Kerala and is a former student of the International Indian School-Jeddah where she briefly studied in 2003. She has also worked at DPS (International School). “I was inspired by Sabitha Rahim to do the MA in English and become a gold medalist just like her,” said Mohammed.
Rahim, who was the first MA English student from IGNOU Saudi Arabia to win a gold medal, also happens to be Mohammed’s fourth grade English teacher at school.
“My family and the IGNOU team were always with me, encouraging me to go on. They were always supportive. I had lost hope toward the end of the second year with new responsibilities as a mom. I had a little one to care for. But Shahnaz Patel of IGNOU Saudi Arabia called me and filled me with optimism. The fatherly figure of our center Riaz Mulla encouraged me to focus all my strength and hard work into success. My husband Anees Aslam was also very supportive,” said Mohammed.
“I also owe my success to the top-quality classes we had in our IGNOU center. We had classes every weekend and they were very useful. The study material provided to us was simple, useful and easy to follow and understand. Studying past papers that were available had been a big help. My interest in drama and poetry made my learning easy,” she said.
“IGNOU Saudi Arabia, within a six-year span in the Kingdom, has proved its credentials by receiving four consecutive gold medals from 2007 for MA English,” said Mulla. Sajida Fakhri and Jueriyah Hashmi are the other previous gold medalists from Jeddah.
——Agencies