City Schools planning country’s first education IPO

E-Paper | March 06, 2026

One of the largest private school networks in Pakistan, The City Schools group, is planning to list its shares on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, the group’s CEO Farzana Firoz said in an interview with Bloomberg.

The institution, which runs at least 192 schools across the country, is considering a private placement followed by a listing, as it attempts to buy land to build and expand its campuses.

If the plan materialises, City Schools will become the first educational institution in the country to be listed on the stock exchange.

Despite her plans for her company, Firoz clarified that the expansion of the school will not improve the country’s poor education system as most students in her school belong to the “upper crust”.

“The ultimate and final responsibility for this [uplifting country’s education system] is with the government,” she added.

The announcement comes after MSCI, a leading global provider of research-based indices and analytics, announced last month it will be seeking feedback on the proposal to re-classify the MSCI Pakistan Index to emerging market status.

The decision would be announced in June.

The City School is today one of the largest private school networks in Pakistan with branches in all major cities across the country. It currently has schools in 54 cities with over 60,000 students and 8,000 employees. The school uses curriculum derived from the UK national curriculum.

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Dr Khan

May 28, 2016 08:43pm

Such an unfortunate event; commodification of education to highest level. The status will bring tax cuts for the Directors/owners. Which other country has schools listed on stock exchange?

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sana

May 28, 2016 08:48pm

I am planning to invest substantial amount and buy these shares, it will be gold rush soon, sure to return high dividends .

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M. Malik

May 28, 2016 08:50pm

An educational institution, driven by profit motive and the bottom line, is not always good for the students. But it depends on the management philosophy and the business model. If money is not the motivation, at the cost of quality and student-teacher ratio, than perhaps it would be a great leap for Pakistan's educational system, which dismally needs an infusion of good teachers and facilities for students to learn at international standards.

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Idit

May 28, 2016 09:03pm

If you are planing to get land either on subsidized rate or based on some preferences then pass on that favour and subsidy to people who cannot afford good schooling for their children.

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Mahmood

May 28, 2016 09:19pm

@Dr Khan Actually, US has several educational groups, in public ownership, and their stock is actively traded on the exchanges. One prominent company is The Apollo Educational Group (Symbol: APOL) which operates University of Phoenix and other 'private' (non-governmental owned) schools and colleges in the US and other countries. In Europe, Australia and Canada, you can also find companies which are publicly listed and provide private education. The quality however, is questionable.

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Zak

May 28, 2016 09:33pm

If an individual can do it why can't a government . Successive governments have had nearly 70 years to provide an education system but failed. Why is that?

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divend

May 28, 2016 09:39pm

@Dr Khan How will it bring tax cuts to the directors/owners?

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Rainman

May 28, 2016 09:45pm

@sana I hope you are right.

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Hakim

May 28, 2016 09:53pm

Shareholders will demand that management positions at this company are given to outsiders. Cure all positions are will family members of Dr Farzana.

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Aamir

May 28, 2016 10:04pm

Education by the rich and for the rich...These private school systems need regulation. But who will do it?

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abdullah

May 28, 2016 11:02pm

@Aamir .if you cant afford it thats your problem.but they dont need regulation.we dont want then to be like gov schools.

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Faisal Khan

May 28, 2016 11:11pm

Primary education is fundamental right of each child. It is the basic service that a democratic government has to provide. Private schooling is a premium service in the West. In North America, only 9% of the student population goes to private school. University of Phoenix is NOT a school. Private universities are fine. Why not invest in Public school system instead of bus/train. Learn from the success story of Malaysia by investing in education.

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Salman

May 29, 2016 12:39am

Such move will further widen the gap between rich-middle class-poor. We cannot afford to further divide the nation. Definatley the education will be more commercialized and expensive, civil society and government should block such idea.

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May 29, 2016 02:21am

Why do they want to open up new schools when their existing schools such as Daraksha Branch does not even have proper teachers...they should invest in teacher quality rather than opening up new buildings and having make shift teachers

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Asma Ali

May 29, 2016 06:06am

@ Failsal Khan, true that.

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Nida

May 29, 2016 07:15am

@Mahmood What is the level of education of University of Phoenix might I ask if it is on the stock exchange?

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ghafoor

May 29, 2016 07:38am

The gvt should also consider placing govt school under public supervision to improve quality of education.

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M Jan

May 29, 2016 07:44am

@M. Malik Any for profit organization first duty is to provide good return to it its share holders but it is still possible to provide good education to its students.

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Nebuchadnazar

May 29, 2016 07:46am

Quite interesting. In fact, even in the US, the K-12 segment has stock market listing for education management companies, i.e. parties who develop courseware, content and operate schools (often on performance contracts), but do not directly own them. However, a lot of these have also crashed badly on stock market after their business model failed to reconcile between needs of the schools and needs of the investors. However, the schools still survived, since they had the choice of reverting to a homegrown management model. In this case, the entire school establishment could be at risk.

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Mohammad

May 29, 2016 11:05am

So what is the contribution of City School in the development of country except stuffing money in their pockets... "Firoz clarified that the expansion of the school will not improve the country’s poor education system as most students in her school belong to the “upper crust”

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A. Karim

May 29, 2016 02:55pm

So if buy City Schools share, can I then make management listen to my complaints as a parent whose kids study there? And can concerned parents become shareholders and force the school chain to normalize the exorbitant fees?

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