Pakistan, and making speeches

I was reviewing things I have done in Pakistan over the last 16 years. Mainly because it has cropped up in my professional life again. A hard place to work in; and I made lots of mistakes.

But I remain proud of standing up in front of a large  audience a long time ago in Karachi and saying this. There is little in it that I would disagree with today:-

Graduates, family, friends, distinguished guest.

On behalf of the Principal and Vice - Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde,

I welcome you all here to this happy and important occasion.

This is an occasion for looking back - and one for looking forward. We look back

to celebrate the achievement of the City School, its tutors and its graduates, the

achievement which is the cause of this ceremony today. We look forward in

anticipation of the further challenges which lie ahead.

So let me start by looking back at what has been achieved. Just over two years

ago, 39 head teachers and teachers of The City School assembled here in Karachi with 2 University of Strathclyde tutors. The 39 were very uncertain of what lay ahead; and I can tell you that,

despite their outward confidence, the 2 University of Strathclyde tutors were even more uncertain.

Since then, almost 300 The City School staff have undertaken studies to postgraduate

certificate level, and about 40 have gone on to study at diploma level: and the

Diploma is running in Karachi this summer for the first time. 11 teachers have

under taken their studies in Glasgow at the Jordanhill Campus of the University of

Strathclyde and have gone on to take a leading and distinguished part in work as

teacher training tutors for The City School.

The City School is mature organisation, about celebrate its 20th year, and the University of

Strathclyde and my Principal send their congratulations to TCS and to you, Mrs.

Firoz, on that singular achievement. Pakistan owes a debt of gratitude to its

private school system and TCS is a leading contributor to that system. From small

and humble beginnings, its contribution has grown to be felt and acknowledged

across all the major cities of this great and challenging country. The growth of

TCS has not been achieved without struggle and sacrifice and we salute the work

and dedication of all those who have contributed to this story of survival and

success.

As TCS move into its 3rd decade, my colleagues and I are honoured to be

associated with the capacity building of which the certificate and diploma courses

are part. We look forward to that fast approaching day when TCS will have an

autonomous and independent teacher training college of its own. Of course, when

that happens, people such as Donald, Peter and I will be sad to leave our TCS

friends behind and we shall miss that noble highway in the skies which annually

has brought us out from Glasgow, through London and Dubai, to Karachi and the

other cities of Pakistan. But we will celebrate this further stage in the maturity of

TCS.

But today is a day and an evening for the graduates; and we join you and your

friends, your colleagues and your families in celebrating your achievement. I

congratulate these of you who have achieved the certificate. It has involved

dedication and hard work. I extend a special word of congratulation to the

diploma graduates. To Batul Ali and Seema Irfan who pioneered the route from

Karachi to the Jordanhill campus of the University of Strathclyde; and to Ghazala

Asif and Naila Durrani who followed a year later. Not only did you have to study

hard; you had to survive the cultural shock of twelve weeks in the city of

Glasgow. Despite the charms of that dearly loved city, I can tell you that there are

many UK citizens who would not readily enter a competition where the prize is

12 weeks in the city of Glasgow.

One of the few subjects you graduates did not study in the Certificate or Diploma

was history of education and, briefly, let me try to remedy that: it would be

appropriate today to look back at two figures from the history of education.

In 6 Jan 1907, a 1 - room nursery school, La Casa dei Bambini, opened in Rome,

with a cupboard of puzzles and learning games. Its founder was Dr. Maria

Montessori, a name well known in Pakistan and in TCS. She preached the

principles of student centred education. Students should have some freedom in

what to learn and when. Her idea were not favoured at the time, a time of chalk

and talk, of fierce discipline and of rigid timetables. But Maria Montessori said “Education is not acquired by listening to words but by active experimentation

with the world and its environment”. These are good principles for us and for you,

both as teachers of children and as tutors of teachers.

Secondly, and finally, I remember a second giant of education. Jan Amos

Komensky was born in 1592, over 400 year ago in the province of Moravia in

Central Europe. He died in 1670 in Amsterdam. Today his name is better

remembered as Comenius, and in his lifetime, spent variously in Poland, Sweden,

England, Transylvania and the Netherlands, he achieved many things. Comenius

pioneered visual learning with his book “The World in Pictures” - Orbis

Sensualium Pictus. As the distinguished historian Norman Davies writes, “Every

child who reads a comic or an illustrated textbook or watches a lesson on

television, film or video should hail Comenius as his mentor”

But Comenius has a greater claim to fame; and, as we think of education in

Pakistan and as the graduates think about their future careers, I would like us to

consider the legacy of Comenius. For Comenius, well in advance of his time,

advocated universal education, education for all, the idea that all our peoples

should have the right to schooling. And as we think about the educational work

still to be done, let us listen to the words of Comenius ringing down the centuries.

For he wrote “Not the children of the rich and powerful only, but boys and girls

alike, rich and poor, in all cities and in all villages, should go to school. And if

people ask ‘What will be the result if workers, villagers porters and even women

become educated?’ I, Comenius, answer them ‘None of these people lack the

capacity to think, to choose, to understand and to do good’”

TCS and its teachers have made a signal contribution to education in Pakistan.

But the combination of state and private education in Pakistan has a mountain as

high as K2 still to climb. As we seek to climb, let us remember the words of

Comenius. 

Karachi                                                          18 July 1998