CHITRAL has been fortunate to have a quality school for boys and girls and the level of education imparted there could be compared to any international standards.

This school began on the initiative of the old ruling family of Chitral when some of their ladies gave their time, effort and private funds and invited teachers from England to start the venture. Soon this became an establishment which attracted more funds from local and foreign philanthropists.

This was in the 80s and because of the Jihad going on in Afghanistan, Chitral featured prominently in the foreign press. The religious fringe which never had much say in Chitral also started making inroads and soon intolerance and bigotry started to surface.

The provincial administration took the school over but agreed to a board of governors who favoured a well-rounded education . A retired English don was invited to become the headmaster and the board of governors agreed to change the name after him — Langland School. However Mr Langland was an old man and easily came under the influence of the provincial government despite the school having a board of governors. This was the time when the MMA ruled the then NWFP. The standard of education slipped and religious bigotry took over.

Langland was persuaded to retire and a qualified English lady, Carey Schofield was invited to take over as head.

A campaign to remove Ms Schofield has been mounted. Vested interests want to gain control and are eyeing the considerable funds that the school has. With the recent local bodies election won by candidates of a religious party, one does not need to be a clairvoyant to guess which way the wind is blowing in the once peaceful and idyllic Chitral.

Javed Khan Tareen
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2015

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