The Kaghan Memorial School
The Kaghan Memorial School (KMS) is focused on providing meaningful education of high quality, completely free of cost, to its students, to ensure that these children have a real chance at making a dramatic change for the better in their lives, thereby breaking the chronic cycle of poverty that their families have been condemned to for generations. The Trust firmly believes that through the provision of such meaningful education and nurturing, the children of the Kaghan Valley will one day become agents for positive and sustainable development for their families, their communities and their country.
The Trustees of KMT are committed to ensuring that the children enrolled in KMS receive quality education that will allow them to choose and aspire to any future career or life goals that they may set for themselves. All too often, in a developing country such as Pakistan, such children are condemned to second-rate schooling just because of their poverty and because of the lack of interest on the part of the authorities concerned to provide them with anything more than the bare-minimum educational services. Spending extra money on providing quality schooling to such children is considered ‘wasteful’ and ‘extravagant’; an opinion shared, unfortunately, by many in civil society as well. This is why even private sector charitable initiatives for educating the underprivileged are also overwhelmingly designed on the principle of providing the most basic education to as many children as possible.
KMT believes that only through the provision of quality education can the poor break free of the chronic cycle of poverty and suffering that their families have been condemned to for generations. The Trustees are convinced that given the opportunities that have traditionally been the reserve of the wealthy and the privileged in this country, children from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds can do just as well as, if not better than, their more affluent counterparts.
KMS is committed to the education of girls and boys alike, with both genders represented equally in each class. One of the main objectives of the School is to allow the girls of the targeted area to have an equal chance to realise their aspirations and dreams as their male counterparts.
In addition to quality schooling, KMT is delivering additional services to the students, which include the provision of winter warmers, transport to and from school, and medical care. All of these are also provided by the School completely free of cost.
KMT is confident that with the type of schooling and nurturing being provided to its students by KMS, these children will one day become strong agents for positive and sustainable development for their families, their communities, and their country. This is the ultimate vision for this School, and KMT will do whatever it can to ensure that this vision becomes a reality.
KMS launched its first classes in September 2008, and the institution has an enrolment of approximately 800 children, divided into 26 classes ranging from Kindergarten to Grade 12. The School has a roughly equal ration of boys and girls. The capacity of the School will expand by two classes (30 to 34 children per class) each successive year until it eventually reaches its full enrolment of over 800 students in the year 2021.
Construction on the 8.75 acre campus continues alongside the School’s ongoing educational programme, and this work is expected to go on for till at least 2024, based on the availability of funds. When fully built, the Kaghan Memorial School campus will contain:
- A co-educational primary school
- A middle school for girls
- A middle school for boys
- A senior school for girls
- A senior school for boys
KMT raises finances for this ongoing construction work and also for running the School by soliciting assistance from donors, by arranging fundraising events, and through its “Sponsor a Child” Programme.