Enabling children and youth to become caring, knowledgeable and creative citizens of tomorrow should be the vision of all public and private schools, but most lack in this endeavour. However only a small segment of society can afford the institutions that take on the responsibility of empowering the youth.

Belonging to the lower-middle class and mostly illiterate, the residents of Youhanabad, Glaxo Town and the surrounding areas in the outskirts of Lahore are lucky that they have an affordable private school model in the shape of Sanjan Nagar Public Education Trust (SNPET) higher secondary school.

Surrounded by narrow and untidy streets, the Sanjan Nagar campus offers a breath of fresh air with its purpose-built double-storey building standing tall on one side of a large playground.

Sanjan Nagar — a Baccalaureate school for the less-privileged

Undeterred by smog, fog and cold weather, students happily return to their school every morning as they get a chance to study as well as get involved in activities to learn and understand in a creative manner.

Armed with the prestigious International Baccalaureate (IB) programme (a holistic inquiry- based system of education authorised for primary schooling that fosters intellect, critical thinking, courage and character formation), young but well-trained teachers help students let their imagination go wild. The students are also taken to the school’s well-stocked library so that they may sift through books and even watch selected documentaries on LED screens.

Along with sporting activities, students also get ample opportunities to participate in many creative activities such as drawing, music, debates and theatrical performances and hone their mental abilities under their teachers’ guidance.

Students of primary, Ali Wasif, Renasha Zafar and Oniq Alam say they enjoy studying at this school because teaching involves extra curricular activities. “We love participating in these activities and learning new things,” says Wasif.

Fizza Hafeez, a first year student, who has been studying at the school for the past seven years, found teachers inspiring students with their knowledge and skills. “We said good-bye to rote learning,” she says. “Our studies are based on continuous inquiry which leads to a creative environment.”

She adds that the school not only focuses on students getting good grades but also provides a number of opportunities to explore innovative ideas, express ourselves and create something new.

Three fully-equipped science laboratories help the students in experiential learning for physics, biology and chemistry which is systematically embedded for grades 6 and above. The school’s science labs offer state-of-the-art facilities and it is immensely enjoyable to perform experiments and discuss results, students say.

While Sanjan Nagar is a co-education institution at the primary level, Shoaib Ali, a student of class-X, says there is no gender discrimination and both boys and girls enjoy equal respect and treatment on the school campus.

Parents see the school as a valuable gift for the underprivileged locality. Sajjad Kazmi, a journalist who works for an Urdu daily, says children’s education is a big issue with parents everywhere but those with few resources encounter a bigger challenge. “The Sanjan Nagar School became popular soon after its inception,” he says. “The school offers education at par with any top-ranking English-medium school in the city. Those studying in this school are certainly privileged.”

The SNPET was launched in 1994 as a charitable trust by Raza Kazim, a lawyer, philanthropist and musicologist. It is governed by a board of trustees consisting of prominent individuals from a variety of backgrounds such as finance, education, academia and social service.

The school building has 40 rooms including 23 for the primary section besides independent well-equipped labs, libraries, ICT (information and communication technology) labs, art rooms, a music room, and a common health and hygiene room. Unlike many others, the school has a large playground.

With 70-plus well-educated faculty members, the school currently has 905 students on its rolls — from play-group to grade 12. Of these, 257 students are in early childhood education and 388 in the primary section.

Parents see the school as a valuable gift for the underprivileged locality. Sajjad Kazmi, a journalist who works for an Urdu daily, says children’s education is a big issue with parents everywhere but those with few resources encounter a bigger challenge. “Sanjan Nagar School became popular soon after its inception,” he says.

SNPET’s senior school head Farzana Kausar explains: “Sanjan Nagar empowers students through learning as a continuous inquiry, international mindedness, respect and celebration of diversity, and cross-cultural understanding for a peaceful world.”

 Being the second such institution in Punjab, Sanjan Nagar earned the Primary Year Programme International Baccalaureate (PYP IB) status in October 2014, after a process of four years with increased focus on knowledge, concepts, attitudes, action and skills instead of content alone. The system offers teaching from Play-Group to Class-V for the 3-13 years age cohort, with a relatively bigger class strength of 30-plus students.

The PYP IB programme’s philosophy is to enable young minds and lead them to a peaceful world, which also aligns with the Sanjan Nagar philosophy, says programme coordinator Daniel Ishaq. “The IB system does not focus much on content but research-based learning,” he says. “It offers knowledge, concepts, attitudes, action and skills to the students so that they may become productive citizens and lead the nation towards a peaceful world. Our students do not appear for the Punjab Examination Commission’s grade 5 and 6 examinations because these are based on rote learning”.

However, the school does prepare students for their matriculation and intermediate examinations by the Lahore board.

Since the IB education system initially seemed difficult for the children belonging to illiterate and semi-literate families, PYP IB section head Misbah Rani says the well-trained teachers are putting in extra efforts to educate parents about the concept. “We are regularly holding presentations and parent-teacher meetings on monthly as well as weekly basis to help them understand the system and come up to their expectations,” she says.

The weaker students are separately tutored in the library period or in music classes as well as in summer camps. “The teachers’ efforts are acknowledged by parents who can see the difference in their children’s learning abilities,” she adds.

Teachers are being offered need-based IB training for their professional development at home and abroad, as well as online.

Baela Raza Jamil, the managing trustee of SNPET, describes the process of a child nurtured from pre-school to university education, blossoming into a responsible empowered citizen of Pakistan as a labour of love. “For us at the trust, the best moment is when you see the students come full circle — completing their education at the school, then at the university and then returning to do service at the school as a teacher or volunteer,” she says. “Yes, they give back so comprehensively and caringly — after all it is they who changed the motto of the school from ‘enabling the deprived’ to ‘enabling our future’. This institution truly creates their future — it is their own space, their own narrative!”

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, December 18th, 2016