A prominent member of his community, Wahiduzzaman is an engineer by profession and works as a project manager in a contracting company.

The BISD has more than 1,000 students on its rolls. And, of the 600 parents, more than 500 participated in the election and voted for seven candidates from among 10 contestants.

Besides Wahiduzzaman, the other six elected members were Mohammad Mainuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Abu Osman Mohammad Siddiqui, Mohammad Atiqul Islam Alvi, Mohammad Aynul Islam, Mohammad Asadul Islam and Shariful Islam.

Mubarak Bubshait of the Ministry of Education and Haroon Rashid and Badiruzzaman of the Bangladesh Embassy were at hand to supervise the elections, which were held through secret ballots. The contestants had to meet the Ministry of Education's criteria, which stipulate that all managing committee members have to be parents of students at the school. The term of the new committee will expire after three years.

Shawkat Kamal, a community member, described the electoral exercise as free, fair and transparent. "Everything went smoothly and we saw a lot of enthusiasm among the parents," he said.

A small number of students at the school belong to other countries such as Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Like other community schools in the Eastern Province, the BISD too is riven by administrative problems. The school was without a fulltime principal for the last two years. Among the first tasks of the new committee was to begin the process of hiring a new principal. An advertisement to this effect was published in this newspaper recently.

"I hope the new committee will recruit a new principal and other qualified teachers as soon as possible with a view to improving the quality of education at the school," said journalist Shamsul Huda. "Hopefully, they will sink their differences in the greater interests of education."

Huda requested the new board to consider relocating the school to a bigger building "since the current one cannot accommodate such a large number of students."

Established in 1987, BISD follows the University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate (UCLES) for its course structure. Students appear for their 'O' level examinations after completing Grade X under UCLES and 'A' level examinations after completing Grade XII under UCLES. The British Council in the Eastern Province supervises both examinations.

The Kingdom is host to more than a million Bangladeshi nationals. Of them, nearly 150,000 reside and work in the twin cities of Alkhobar and Dammam. Among all the Bangladeshi community schools in the Kingdom, the one in Jeddah is rated as the best with a strength of 1,000 students.