Umm Al Quwain: Students and staff members of an Indian school in the UAE have paid rich tributes to a teacher who died after a brief hospitalisation last week.
The New Indian School in Umm Al Quwain held a virtual condolence meeting and brought out a magazine in memory of its staff member Jaseena Salih, 34, who died while she was five months pregnant with her third child.
Rafeeq Rahim, principal of the school, told Gulf News that it was “with immense sorrow that the school shared the most unexpected demise of their beloved teacher”.
In a short span of her service with the school since November 2018, he said Jaseena, a university rank holder, had proved her leadership qualities and coordination skills and became the head of the Science Department in March 2020.
“She was leading the department with creative and innovative ideas and planned novel scientific projects for students since then.” Under her supervision, a project of the school titled ‘Sewage Sludge Hygienisation Therapy’ got selected in the finals of the UAE’s national student competition, ‘Nuclear Science for Development’ (NSFD), in 2019.
Shouldering extra responsibilities
Jaseena was the coordinator for Science Stem Exhibition in the academic year 2018-2019 and coordinated with students for participation in the International Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2021.
Rahim said Jaseena was always creative and had a positive attitude. “Even if it was an additional duty or a challenge for her, she would take it up if it was good for the students, with no extra benefits for her,” Rahim said.
“It is too tragic that we have lost her. It was a big shock to the institute and many of us are still trying to come to terms with it. We express our deep and heartfelt condolences to the grieving family and join in their prayers,” he added. The principal said the students and staff members brought out the 25-page e-magazine with photos, portraits, notes and poems, which will be gifted to her family as a memoir.
Students remembered her for her kind and inspiring nature and said how dearly they would miss her presence.
Jaseena’s children study in grade six and KG 2 in the same school.
‘Allah took them to heaven early’
Her husband Salih Kattubava Hamza told Gulf News that he considered it Allah’s decision to take them [Jaseena and her unborn child] to heaven early.
“We have two sons. It was just four days before her hospitalisation that we got to know our third child was a girl. But, Allah has decided to take both of them together to heaven early.”
Hamza, an accountant with a perfume company in Dubai. said he had decided to send his sons to their grandparents back home in India so that they can be taken care of while he goes to work.
“We have done our tests for COVID-19 and all of us have tested negative,” he said on Wednesday hours before flying out to India with his kids.
