Last month, Mursuleem Altaf a 10th-class student of Peace School Nagam Chadoora in Budgam worked on a project related to blind curves on road with an aim to avoid road accidents. After completion, he presented the project in the recently held science exhibition in the school where his idea was widely appreciated and he was assured that it would be taken to another level.
Mursuleem said that the teachers encouragingtalent of students is what makes Peace School Nagam Chadooraaltogether different from others.
When Sama Shabirjoined the school, it was at its initial stage and despite that she along with other students were provided best education over the years.
“I feel lucky to be student of this school and I feel very proud of my teachers. If i am able to talk confidently today, it is because of our teachers,” said Sama, a class 8th student.
The concept of this school started in 2008, when Athar Parvez Mir, a resident of Chadoora town, was in search of a school for his four year old son where moral education would be imparted along with the formal education. He couldn’t find any such school in the nearby area.
Being a Junior Engineer that time in Power Development Department, Mir thought to start his own school under the proprietorship of his wife who was a homemaker.
The idea of imparting moral education along with formal education was then put into action by renting a three-storey building of a Kashmiri Pandith in Nagam Chadoora locality and named it Peace School Nagam Chadoora.
“The first batch was started with 10 students only where in mostly my friends put their children and trusted my new endeavour,” said Mir, who is Chairman of the school.
In 2012, Mir purchased land and started constructed of own building at Takiya Nagam. In 2013, one storey was completed and by 2014 the school was shifted to this building.
“Once seeing that the roll of school was increasing, I got uncomfortable in disbursing my duties as an engineer in the PDD. With every passing day my conscience started revolting against me as I thought it is not justice to be away from somewhere I really belong,” he said, adding, he gave up the government job in 2018 the year when he was about to promoted as AEE.
The roll of school is presently more than 1000 and school has touched many milestones in its journey so far. “Our first 10th class batch of 22 students passed out in 2020. Among 22, five secured 4th, 6th, 10th and 15th positions in the annual examination,” he said.
The second batch of 36 students which appeared in class 10 examination in 2021 secured seven positions and bagged 2nd position (499/500) which was a remarkable achievement.
Moreover, the school admin has made it compulsory for all students from primary class to speak only in English language and has achieved set linguisticgoal.
“From the inception there has been the strategy of school to hire teachers from Srinagar in order to maintain, impart quality education it its students. The school is providing the Srinagar staff transportation facilities in addition to their salaries,” Mir said.
Among the fundamental policies, the school is feasible in terms of finance to all the sections of society, be it weaker or economically stronger.
“Our policy is that the money shouldn’t become an obstacle for good performing students and for those parents who have desired to give better education to their wards,” he said.
The chairman said the school from the very beginning believed in learning by doing method and in this regard the school conducted mega science exhibition in which students demonstrated their working models based on applied science in presence eminent dignitaries.
“It was aimed to boost the morale of students.The guests on seeing the hard work of teachers and students appreciated and approved one of the models for the next level,” he said.
In order to enhance the overall development and transformation of theory into practical learning and to achieve the retention and conceptual clarify of core subjects, the school recently tied up with Edu Tech company to deliver quality education to students with international standard curriculum benchmarked with Singapore, US, Canada.
“The school is transforming its normal classes in to 100 percent smart classes. Audiovisual way of learning, personalized attention skill-based, and practical education,” he said.
At the village school, sports are one of the focus areas. The students participated actively in all sport activities conducted by different organizers at zonal as well as district level and has proven their mettle by bagging different positions and prizes.
Principal of the school, Aijaz Jalal said that the school has become successful in imparting quality education in the short span of time.
He said that due to the better environment in the school, the teachers from Srinagar prefer to work here.
“We have been working hard to impart quality education and this (teaching) is not only a profession but a mission and we hope to achieve much more in the future,” he said.
