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.
Related: MSCI mulls Pakistan re-entry in EM index
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.