Mr Taleb Basheer Hussein
I started my career in teaching in September 1974 with a B.A Honours degree in English and joined Islamic Cultural College Port Louis in January 1977. Having discovered my calling, I realized that a good academic qualification was insufficient if I wanted to improve my teaching skills and become a professional of high caliber. Hence I read for a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. Teaching at secondary level gave me the chance to share the lives of thousands of young people who, at an impressionable age, needed a model, a guide, a friend more than a teacher. I yearned to play these roles and set myself the task of improving my own culture and knowledge. I am still pursuing this self-imposed assignment in the hope that I can be of better service to my fellow humans. I also grabbed every opportunity to acquire experience in teaching outside the classroom. Thus, I collaborated with the M.C.A, the M.E.S and the M.I.E. I assisted in spearheading extra-mural activities like the Model United Nations. I was, in this way, learning to manage programmes and people.
I was selected to head the Islamic Cultural College Port Louis as Rector in 1995. At first, it did not dawn upon me that this was a totally different job from teaching. When it sank in, I decided to look for an academic base to supplement my hands-on experience and I registered for an M.A in Educational Management.
Then came the chance of a lifetime. Indeed, very few educators have been called upon to start a new school project from the infrastructure to the educational programme, going through the recruitment of the entire staff. I implored The Almighty’s protection and took up the challenge. The Islamic Cultural College Form Six saw the light of day in 2005. Now, I dedicate all my time, my energy and intellectual acumen to nurture this institution in order to earn it a place of choice in the educational landscape in our country. I continue to entertain the secret plan to condense my humble experience in education in the form of a PhD thesis one of these days, if God wills, of course.