Karachi: Housed in a historical building, the St Joseph’s Convent School in the Saddar area of Karachi is celebrating 16 decades of service to girl students in Pakistan.
Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, was the chief guest at the ceremony to mark the occasion.
Karachi’s most prestigious convent school for girls was established in March 1862. It started with the enrolment of just 10 students and gradually went on to add numbers to promote girls education in the very early days of the modern city. The school, which runs two shifts, now has more than 2,000 students.
Shah told the audience that he had readily accepted the invitation to attend the celebrations because of his decades-old association with the St Joseph’s School.
Shah said that he had studied at the adjacent St Patrick’s High School whereas his five sisters had studied at the St Joseph’s School for 17 years from 1969 to 1986.
“For all these 17 years I wasn’t allowed to step inside the St Joseph’s School as I waited outside the school for my sisters to come out after the end of their classes,” he said.
He said that three of his sisters after graduating from school had become doctors, while one of them had obtained a gold medal after attaining higher education at the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi before she started working for the best companies in Pakistan.
He said that his youngest sister had been working in the education sector, while two years ago she was awarded the prestigious civil award “Tamgah-e-Imtiaz” by the federal government.
“I didn’t have any knowledge that the federal government had decided to award her this medal as I only got to know about it when the government announced the names of the winners of the civil awards. Most importantly this decision was made when I didn’t have much friendly terms with the federal government at that time,” said the CM.
Character and discipline
He said that all the distinctions achieved by her sisters in their further education and practical lives were because of their sound academic foundations built due to their schooling at St Joseph’s School.
Shah told the audience that the strength of the character and discipline acquired by the students of the St Joseph’s School went on to become the permanent traits of their personalities in their later lives.
He appreciated that the St Joseph’s School had produced many distinguished doctors, educationists, engineers, lecturers, teachers, designers, performers, journalists, politicians, and chief executive officers of many companies.
He said the students of the school after completing their education had joined many fields including education, business, trade, public, and private sector organisations.
Shah prayed that the St Joseph’s School continued to educate the girls of Sindh in the same noble manner for many years to come.
Speaking on the occasion, Sindh Education Minister, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, told the audience that over 50,000 students were enrolled in 160 missionary schools in the province.
He said the Sindh government would provide the best possible assistance to catholic schools in pursuit of their mission to educate the children of the province.
