Celebrating private and government schools.

Last week, I said in my article that a new school year is meant to be a happy time. Today, I will say that the first day of the new school at the opening of the SSPSS school on Kuri Road in Islamabad was indeed happy. The full name of the school in the new sector of the capital is 'Sir Syed Preparatory School System', and it borrows from the Montesori School's pedagogical ideas, notably placing the child in the centre and emphasizing individual growth in cooperation with fellow students, so that good values and attitudes can be developed in all.

I attended the impressive opening day at SSPSS with beautiful primary school children, most of them quite young since the school is also just a few years old. The teachers, all female, about twenty in number, had prepared the event in detail, and the 350 students, boys and girls, had learnt songs, theatre skits, speeches, and more, by heart. It was a treat for me and my friend, Mrs. Ruth Zulfikar Butt, a retired music teacher originally from New Zealand. She was training to be an opera singer in London when she met her Pakistani husband to be. They married and settled here some fifty years ago. The family lived in USA for a while, but the children were homesick and family moved back.

The SSPSS school, where we had been invited as chief guests at the opening, was established by an engineer and iron factory owner, Khadim Husain. He is paying back to society and his local community in a way that we should all do if we have the resources to do so. SSPSS is a private school, but the school also works with the government in different ways. Samar Raza, a senior civil servant, is the main adviser at the school. The owner of the school, or managing director, as he preferred to call himself, said that cooperation between the private sector and government is important in developing the new school.

The owner and the adviser, together with the head teacher and other teachers showed the chief guests around at the school at the smart classrooms, library, IT and science rooms, and more. The teachers, administrators and students had decorated neat and friendly corridors and class rooms. Also, one could notice the practical touch of an artistic engineer, the owner and manager, using bright colours and untraditional styles.

Today, I want to celebrate this private school and all private schools. Yet, I am also an advocate of the government education system. In earlier articles, I have said that I have questions about...