Established 122 years ago, the Government Girls Higher Secondary School No.1 was one of the first schools in the region to teach girls from across the Potohar region, Azad Kashmir and Jhelum.

The school was opened by the local British authorities as a high school in Bagh Sardaran in 1896. At the time, there was only one other girls’ school, on Murree Road, in the city. The high school was opened between a Hindu temple and a Sikh gurdwara, which now serves as an office for the police’s Special Branch.

Jag Mohan Arora, a local resident whose family settled in the area before partition, said the school had students from Rawalpindi’s Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities. He recalled that his Sikh and Hindu neighbours had even studied there before partition.

The high school was also the first to offer a students’ hostel, run by the then British deputy commissioner, which housed girls from northern Punjab.

The hostel building, which consists of 20 rooms, two dining halls and a kitchen, is now abandoned, and in the absence of government attention its windows and doors have been broken.

The main school has a barracks-like structure, typical for that time, with a bell installed in the building. Many government schools and hospitals in the garrison city in the colonial period were built in the style of military barracks.

Former students and teachers at the school said the school was part of Bagh Sardaran, a park constructed by Sardar Sujan Singh Rai Bahadur that also included a gurdwara and a library. Some older residents said Sardaran referred to Singh’s sister, and the park was limited to women only.

Although there are no records available regarding the school’s donors, education department officials told Dawn the building was constructed by British authorities.

A plaque in the main hall of the building reads: “This school participated in the jubilee celebrations of their majesties 6th May 1935”. The jubilee celebrations were held in Delhi in 1935 to mark King George V and Queen Mary’s 25 years on the British throne.

“After 1972, this school was made into an intermediate college. In 2017, new buildings were added to increase the number of students,” District Officer Secondary Education Amir Iqbal told Dawn.

He said there are now over 1,700 students enrolled in the school from nursery to grade 12, several of whom have won medals for their studies and their participation in extracurriculars, including debates, drama, music and religious activities.

Mr Iqbal said the school contained sports facilities and an IT laboratory, and was a model school in the region.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2018