Sadiq Public School: Nawab Sadiq paid rich tributes on anniversary

BAHAWALPUR

The 49th death anniversary of the last crowned Amir of former Bahawalpur State, Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan, was observed.

The day dawned with Quran Khawani and Fateha Khawani for the departed soul of the late amir. A number of social, cultural, literary and official organizations staged different programmes to mark the day in which the speakers paid rich tributes to him and highlighted his remarkable services for public service and Pakistan.

Speakers during various seminars said that he was a visionary ruler who always considered welfare of his people as top priority. He contributed in every walk of life like land reforms, health, education and social welfare. He will always be remembered as a great patriot.

Islamia University of Bahawalpur Vice Chancellor Dr Qaiser Mushtaq in his message on the occasion said that Sir Sadiq always considered welfare of his people as top priority. He established many renowned institutions in education and health sectors and the people are benefiting from these institutions even today.

The Islamia University of Bahawalpur is clear example of his devotion and commitment towards education.

The speakers in the seminar also discussed services of Nawab of Bahawalpur in education, justice and public health and highlighted his welfare steps. They also paid rich tribute to him for his active role in Pakistan movement and his support for the sate.

Another seminar was held in SPS Bahawalpur. The speakers said that although Nawab Sadiq contributed in every walk of life like land reforms, health, education and social welfare. His greatest achievement was to establish a boarding school, Sadiq Public School, on the pattern of Aitcheson College Lahore. He not only provided financial support but also donated a wide and large agricultural land for it. This is the only institution of its kind where the focus is laid on imparting education along with training and character building.

He laid the foundation stone of Sadiq Pubic School on 4th March 1953; provided 450 acres of land and financed the entire construction cost while Makhdoomzada Hassan Mahmud supervised the project.

On 18th of January 1954, he opened the school with 37 students and 7 teachers and Khan Anwar Sikandar

Khan as the first Principal. Since its inception Sadiq Public School has contributed to the intellectual awakening, social upbringing and economic uplift, particularly in the field of politics of this area in particular and of Pakistan in general.

There are 4 academic blocks, 5 boarding houses, over 2,000 students, 130 teachers, 61 staff bungalows, and 100 staff quarters, 2 swimming pools, library, squash court, gymnasium, riding club, IT Center, and a school for the children of lower staff at Sadiq Public School.

A separate girls section, started in May 2003 with 9 girls, has risen to 600 girls. The new academic block for girls, donated by the president of UAE, completed on 25th July 2008 and the girls (class 6 to 12) were shifted into it on 6th of October 2008.


Although Nawab Sahib’s life journey ended at the age of 62, his literary journey and great service in education in the form of Sadiq Public School will continue till doomsday Inshallah, they said.

Upcoming School Calendar at Sadiq Public School

Here is the upcoming summer calendar for Sadiq Public School:

• Saturday, June 6 - Boarders leave home after school.

• Sunday, June 7 - Summer Vacation begins (June 7 - August 24).

• Monday, June 8 - Scout Camp

• Monday, June 8 - Excursion to Northern Areas

• Thursday, July 18 - Ramzan UL Mubark

• Monday, July 17 - Summer School begins

War of words: Declamation contest starts at PU

LAHORE:  The All Pakistan Bilingual Declamation Contest 2015 started at the Punjab University on Tuesday.

PU Vice Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran inaugurated the contest. PU Students Affairs Director Shahid Mehmood Gull, Institute of Education and Research Director Dr Mumtaz Akhter, Deputy Director Zubair Akhram and faculty members were also present.

Forty universities from the country, including Government College University Lahore, Forman Christian College Lahore, PAF College Murree, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Sadiq Public School Bahawalpur, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai University Sindh, University of Sargodha, University of Gujrat, Preston University Karachi, COMSATS Karachi and GCU Faisalabad are taking part in the contest.

Topics for the debates include, ‘I am a son of the soil, I am not for sale’, ‘Where is the man made in image of God?’, ‘You, me, Pakistan and future’, ‘Sarcasm is my super power’, ‘I am not stupid, I just have bad luck when thinking’ and ‘But wait, there is more’. The concluding ceremony will be held on Wednesday (today) at the Faisal Auditorium.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2015.

Sadiq Public School: State of Education in Pakistan

Earlier this month, an important regional seminar was held in Lahore to address issues of equity and quality in school education. It was organised by ITA, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi and South Asia Forum for Education Development in collaboration with Education Testing Service USA, DFID, UKAID and Open Society Foundation as a follow-up of the Salzburg meetings. 


Following the example of Prathom and ASER Centre (Annual Status of Education Report) in India, ITA has been carrying out annual surveys of school education in Pakistan. 


The inaugural session of the seminar was addressed by Rukmini Banerji, Director ASER Centre India. She spoke about the ASER experience in India. She said that 97 percent (gross) of children aged 6 to 14 are enrolled in schools, but 50 percent of them in grade 5 cannot read grade 2 level texts. The data for arithmetic is equally depressing. The challenge in India, according to her, is how to effectively improve learning outcomes.


In Pakistan, the conditions are no better, if not worse. The net enrolment at the primary level is around 60 percent. Attendance of teachers and students in schools leaves much to be desired. According to the Pakistan Task Force report released last year, on a given day 15 to 20 percent of public sector teachers are found absent leaving children for one day a week, without teaching. It is estimated that out of 365 days of the year in Pakistan, public schools teaching takes place only on 120 days or so - the rest of the days, the schools are either closed or remain busy in other activities; teachers have to attend to such non-teaching duties as election related assignments.


In Pakistan today, about eight million children are out of school at the primary level and according to an estimate, the number of 5-16 years old out of school is 20 million. And 40 percent of those who do join school at the age of 5, dropout during the first two years.


In a paper presented at the ASER seminar, Dr Faisal Bari and Ms Nargis Sultana drew attention to the fragmentation of education in Pakistan. To quote: “Our education system is divided on lines of geography, class, income/wealth, medium of instruction, cost, syllabi, curricula and gender and these differences manifest themselves in differentials in access, dropouts and in the quality of education that is imparted. And existing differences in educational provision will, inevitably, create even bigger differences in the future. If our objective is to educate all children, and at least to a minimum standard, so that they can have some equality of opportunity, or at least a bigger set of opportunities available to each of them, we need to challenge the existing differences and divisions.”


Ms Banerji in her talk mentioned some remedial steps to improve learning outcomes. These included organising summer camps for laggard students, regrouping of students in the classes and reviewing the text books which she found a little too difficult to read and comprehend. She also recommended child-friendly practices in the classrooms and outside. 

And better teacher-training programmes. 


India has already promulgated a Right to Education Legislation and after the 18th Amendment, Pakistan has yet to do so. Some of the recommendations made on the basis of the ASER India findings 2011 are: 


* India has made impressive progress in enrolment. Now is the time to turn from inputs and access, and focus on the challenge of how to improve quality. 
* Learning outcomes must move to centre stage.
* Large-scale corrective action to build the basic skills of reading arithmetic is urgently required.
* There are real challenges in Indian classrooms. These include diverse age groups, wide variations in ability and multiple classes sitting together. Teachers need to be equipped in a practical way to be able to teach effectively under these circumstances.


Dr Iffat Shah, who summed up the findings of the Lahore ASER seminar, made in this connection, a few thought-provoking observations: “Teacher quality is fundamentally important to student learning - although we do need to remember that the teacher is not the only factor that affects learning. Teacher quality seems to be most frequently measured in terms of academic credentials. But there is little or no evidence that higher credentials or pre-service training lead to better quality of teaching. We also heard some evidence suggesting that teachers are struggling and demotivated. However, there is some evidence that school-based professional development can prepare better teachers, as assessed by their students’ learning. We need to know far more about teacher educators and teacher education colleges. A variety of models of teacher education was presented. It will be important to assess the impact of these teacher training or professional development programmes on teacher practice and student outcomes. If there is no positive effect on teaching quality and student learning, then it will be a wasted effort. It was claimed that finding out about impact may be expensive, but I submit that not knowing will be far more expensive.” 


More wise words came from Zubaida Mustafa, Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy, Ahsan Iqbal, Kasim Kasuri and Ali Moeen Nawazish. Hoodbhoy emphasised a thorough review of the existing out-dated educational system. He was critical of the exam-based learning, which rests on memorising and not “internalising” knowledge. Kasuri said that schools were not relying on real life skills, and that teacher training only improved “professional practices”, but failed to improve the learning outcome of a child. There was need for relating it to school-based monitoring. Ahsan Iqbal remarked that the problem lay with the insensitivity of the ruling elite towards education. Quality teachers were needed to impart knowledge relevant to changing global requirements. He pleaded for enhanced allocations for education and standard curriculum designed by the federal government. Zubaida Mustafa dilated on the plight of the poor children and observed that when children are undernourished and stunted, and have not been exposed to a healthy and positive social environment that encourages mental and cognitive stimulation, they will not have the capacity to benefit optimally from good pedagogy and excellent textbooks. She advocated stringent social controls on the private sector, not by pulling them back, but by encouraging them to take the weaker section of the society along with them. 


The Education For All targets and the Millennium Development Goals to which Pakistan is committed will remain a distant dream, unless education is given the highest priority and urgent steps are taken to upgrade and modernise it.


There is much to learn by our governments and the private sector from the wisdom spelt out in the ASER’s seminar briefly highlighted in this column. 


As far back as 1947, in his message to the All Pakistan Education Conference, Quaid-i-

Azam had warned: “The future of our state will and must greatly depend on the type of the education and the way in which we bring up our children as the future servants of Pakistan.” We still are waiting for the emergence of political will from our rulers in this benighted country.
   

Sadiq Public School: Private & Public Education in Pakistan

In Pakistan during the 1970s, the government nationalised all private schools, severely restricting the growth of this sector and its potential in educating young Pakistanis. Fast forward 20 years and we find that private sector initiatives in the area of education have re-emerged all over the country.

This hasn’t happened in a vacuum though. Rather, private schools are more in demand than ever before at a time when Pakistan’s public school system is facing very big problems. Some of the major problems public schools face include limited financial resources, poor quality of content and above all, parents who can give little attention to their children’s studies at home. Pakistan’s public schools are either overcrowded or underfunded. These issues have largely fuelled the recovery of private schools in Pakistan. Although traditionally, private schools have been a luxury only the rich can afford, this is not necessarily the case in the current comeback of the private sector in Pakistan’s education system. According to the Human Development in South Asia’s 1998 report, 70 per cent of the schools in Pakistan have no toilets, 68 per cent have no drinking water, 92 per cent have no playgrounds, 60 per cent have no boundary walls and 16 per cent are without a building. A delegation from the UK visiting Pakistan has also noted a lack of desks, books, blackboards, electricity, doors and windows, not to mention the problem of overcrowded classrooms. And the phenomenon of ghost schools, institutions which receive government grants but do not exist, is now common knowledge. These are just some of the realities of Pakistani public schools, especially in rural areas.

The country’s public school system was once able to produce literate, disciplined students. Today, it is an open drain of corruption and backwardness. This is why private schools have become an alternative for parents serious about educating their children, despite personal financial constraints. Although, generally speaking, private schools have often been criticised for worsening the problem of inequality in education, the available evidence clearly indicates that the private education sector is providing quality education and is very important in Pakistan.

Naveed Ahmed Wassan

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th,  2014.

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Sadiq Public School: Sports

The School is spread over 190 acres of land. The buildings are well-spaced out, allowing for spacious lawns and shady, fruit and flowering trees, shrubs and flower beds. The students are encouraged to take interest in their maintenance and to experience the pleasure which can be derived from flowers and trees.

The Junior and Girls Sections have their own playing fields and lawns equipped with children’s playing apparatus.

The Senior Section is provided with two large cricket-cum-athletic fields, several full size hockey and football grounds, two basketball courts, two squash court, six lawn tennis courts and a gymnasium.

Two Swimming Pools, with filtration plants, one for the Junior and the other for the Seniors, are available. 

They are fully equipped with diving and spring boards. In summers, swimming is compulsory for all boarders.

The School maintains over 30 horses of various sizes suitable for boys / girls of all ages. Students who join Riding Club are charged accordingly.

Sadiq Public School: Did You Know?

Facts and other interesting pieces of information that you may not know about Sadiq Public School.

Did you you:

* Sadiq Public School is a boarding, college-prep school located in Pakistan.

* Sadiq Public School takes day pupils as well.

* Sadiq Public School is one of the largest schools in Pakistan. Its area of 1,851 acres (7.49 km) makes it both the largest in the country and in continental Asia.

* The curriculum for Sadiq Public School includes education from KG to O-level and A-level as well as local board Matriculation/Intermediate.

* Sadiq Public School has over over 1,400 boys and 600 girls and a staff of approximately 135.

* The foundation stone of Sadiq Public School was laid by His Highness Ala Hazrat Al Haj Sir Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi V on March 4, 1953 and the school started functioning on January 18, 1954.

Academic Session 2015-2016

April
7 Tuesday	SCHOOL RE-OPENS
13 Monday	BADMINTON COMPETITION (BOYS & GIRLS)
20 Monday	SQUASH COMPETITION BOYS (20-22) & GIRLS (23-24)
21 Tuesday	SPELLING BEE CONTEST (JR.)
22 Wednesday	SPELLING BEE CONTEST(PREP)
25 Saturday	INTER HOUSE ENGLISH ELOCUTION (PREP)
30 Thursday	OPEN DAY
May
4 Monday	O & A LEVEL EXAMS START
6 Wednesday	INAUGURAL FUNCTION JR. SECTION
7 Thursday	INTER HOUSE PERFORMING ARTS COMPETITION (GIRLS)
9 Saturday	INTER HOUSE DEBATE/DECLAMATION (ENGLISH) PREP
9 Saturday	INTER HOUSE ENGLISH ELOCUTION (SR.)
11 Monday	SUMMER VACATION ASSIGNMENT TO BE READY
11 Monday	ENGLISH CALLIGRAPHY COMPETATION (PREP & JR)
14 Thursday	INTER HOUSE DECLAMATION ENGLISH & URDU (JR.)
16 Saturday	INTER-HOUSE PERFORMING ARTS COMPETITION (PREP)
18 Monday	URDU CALLIGRAPHY COMPETITION (PREP & JR.)
21 Thursday	INTER - HOUSE DECLAMATION URDU (PREP)
24 Sunday	DEATH ANNIVERSARY OF AMEER OF BAHAWALPUR
30 Saturday	June Exams(30-6 June)
June
6 Saturday	BOARDERS LEAVE FOR HOME AFTER SCHOOL