KARACHI, March 27: Almost 300 children from 17 schools participated in a walk held at Mazar-i-Quaid yesterday as part of the global celebrations to mark a 100 years of Montessori education. The event was organised by Pakistan Montessori Association, Karachi. Their footsteps would be registered at the centenary website, http://www.montessoricentenary.org.

Dressed in colourful outfits, the children walked outside the mausoleum as their teachers recorded their 100 footsteps. The walk, 100 Steps for Montessori, links up schools from around the world so that together the children, metaphorically speaking, can walk all around the equator. “The aim is to create awareness about Montessori system of education which has proved to be the best method to educate pre-school children. The beauty of this system is that it makes learning an enjoyable experience and looks at each child as an individual, said Salma Imtiaz of Montessori Teachers Training Centre.

Kishwar Tariq Allawala of PMA said there were few schools in the country which were following Montessori education’s true spirit. She said government schools were adopting Montessori education. She said Montessori worked because it was driven by the development needs of children, rather than the ever-changing educational policies of the government.

On January 6 in 1907, the first Montessori school was opened by Maria Montessori in the slums of Rome marking the beginning of what rapidly became a global education movement. There are now more than 22,000 Montessori schools around the world in more than 110 countries.