Mr Mahmood Fahmi Ahamed
I graduated from National University of Singapore with an Honours degree in European Studies and a second major in Sociology. I undertook the Postgraduate Diploma in Education at the National Institute of Education (NIE) in 2005 when I joined the teaching profession.
My first posting was to a JC that had just been set up (sounds oddly familiar) and I had the great opportunity to help shape the college culture and institutions even as a beginning teacher. In my second year, I was asked by my principal to take on another Herculean task – that of establishing the China Studies in English (CSE) department as its coordinator on top of being the coordinator for History. These roles, huge as they were for a young teacher, helped in my rapid development as a teacher and also prepared me well for the role I played in my next stint as a Curriculum Planning Officer (History / CSE) in MOE HQ. In this second stint, I again had several other fabulous opportunities waiting for me, including being part of the teams to develop the newly launched A-level History and CSE syllabuses (2016).
One of my great passions in life is student learning and I take pride in the fact that I’ve had opportunities to hone my skills in its related aspects such as curriculum design, pedagogy and assessment. “Docendo discimus” (By teaching, we learn) has been a sort of personal guiding philosophy for me in my journey as an educator. It truly reflects, in essence, what we do as teachers because our role is not only to teach students; through the experience, we gain further insights and continue learning new ways and techniques to improve ourselves in a continuous lifelong cycle of teaching and learning. This philosophy, hence, has guided me in the pursuit of my passion in teaching as well as in my idiosyncrasy as a perfectionist.
My other interests that keep me energised and constantly excited about life are reading, travelling, television, and cooking (in no particular order). I have enough books at home to build a play house for all my three kids, and you can trust me to cook you a dish of chili crab or biryani that is absolutely out of this world! One thing that these other passions of mine have taught me and that I constantly apply in my teaching is that we need to have the nimbleness to juggle many roles and responsibilities simultaneously. Teaching students goes well beyond the timetabled lesson as what we can learn (and teach) can be found all around us in any moment and in any nook or cranny.
Once again, I’m lucky indeed to be part of the pioneering group of educators starting a new college. I hope to be able to apply all the insights I have gained from my previous experiences to enrich and be enriched by this endeavor to create a new institution called Eunoia JC!
Fahmi joined the college as a pioneering member of staff in 2017.