Dr. Zareef Memorial School (zabardast)

dwards from UK volunteered to head the school for one year each. Muffin and Mr.John Darren Green from the UK had also volunteered as teachers in this school in the years 1991 and 2000 respectively. Since April 1994, Sr. Patricia Kennedy who was an Australian Volunteer was heading the School as the Principal, Advisor, Teacher Trainer and the moving spirit behind the establishment of the sister institution called ERIC. She had trained a team of local teachers who are able to run workshops for teachers in ERIC in English as well as in native languages of Urdu and Pashto. In the year 2000, Sr. Kennedy was instrumental in raising funds back home to establish a top of the range (P-II) computer lab with nine PCs / Units which were linked by networking. Since 2010, the computers were upgraded to Pentium IV. It was commissioned and named Kennedy Computer Lab. She was also instrumental in raising funds and collecting books for the library which boasts nearly 5000 books by now. Since 2004, cool school practices are adopted in ZMS where children resolve their own disputes and differences through the mediators from amongst themselves who have been trained by their teachers. In January 2004, all teachers were trained by a Professor of Canterbury University in New Zealand where such schools are called the “Cool Schools”. This concept was originally developed in Nova Scotia, Canada. ZMS is the first and only school where the " Aga Khan Family Clinic " started a pilot project of " Students Health Scheme " in September 2010. Complete medical checkup of each student from age ten and above is done six monthly and their database record maintained on computer. Any student who needs special medical attention is referred to the parents / specialist consultant for further care. Now each student as well as their family is aware of the medical condition and blood group of the student. The school policy endeavours to produce such youth who will seriously consider to adopt the professions in the field of Biodiversity, Teaching and Sports besides others. Field trips to wildlife parks, pheasantries, industries and museums are organised besides art and speeches on the subject. ZMS mission may seem different then most schools in Pakistan because it aims to build the personality of a child as a whole rather than only bookish knowledge. Also in ZMS we are happy to take those weak students who may otherwise miss the chance of doing matriculation because other schools will not accept them. In other words, the aim is not to get positions in the examination of the testing Boards. It is to prove that the student can do so many things in life even if one cannot score very high marks.