Karachi Grammar School

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Location
Karachi Grammar School
Karachi, Sindh Pakistan
Information
Type	Private
Motto	Indocti Discant Lucerna Meis Pedibus
Established	1847
Alumni	Grammarians
Homepage	Official website

The Karachi Grammar School (KGS) is a prestigious, co-educational private school in Karachi, Pakistan and one of the country's top educational institutions.

KGS was established in 1847 by the Reverend H. Brereton, the first Chaplain of Karachi as a school for "English and Anglo-Indian children"^[1][1]. The school remained small initially, with about 300 students in 1940. Over the past fifteen years, however, the school has expanded rapidly and now occupies three campuses across Karachi with a total student population in the thousands. Karachi Grammar School is the oldest private school in Pakistan and the second oldest in the Indian sub-continent.^[2]

1 Curriculum
2 Extracurricular activities
3 The House System
4 Campuses
5 Social Role
6 Famous Alumni
7 Notable Principals
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Curriculum

Like many private schools in Pakistan, KGS is geared, especially at the secondary level, towards preparing students for University of Cambridge International Examinations GCE Ordinary Level, Advanced Subsidiary Level, and Advanced Level examinations.^[3]

Subjects taught at KGS include physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, computer studies, computing, Pakistan Studies, Urdu, Islamic studies, English literature and language, economics, accounting, business management, environmental management, world history, studio art, psychology and sociology.^[3]

[edit] Extracurricular activities

Karachi Grammar School excels in providing a wide variety of extracurricular activities for its pupils.^[1]

Once a year the Junior School hosts the Junior School Concert, which is a professionally directed musical including every child in the Junior School. The Senior Section and Middle School each host plays and drama festivals every year.

[edit] The House System

The four school houses are Frere (for Henry Bartle Frere), Napier (for Charles James Napier), Streeton (for Rev. Streeton) and Papworth (for a former principal, and a recent invention, causing house-loss from the other three houses as the traditional lineage-based system of housing selection is in decline, as pupils are now able to switch their houses). The house colours are red, blue, green, and cornflower blue, respectively.

[edit] Campuses

The original campus, located at 94 Depot Lines in the Saddar area, now houses only classes seven to nine and is known as the Middle School. In 1991, the Kindergarten and Junior Section was opened on Khayaban-e-Saadi in the Boat Basin area of Clifton for nursery, kindergarten, and classes 1 to 6. The latest addition to the school, the College Section in 1999, is also located on Khayaban-e-Saadi a few hundred meters from the Kindergarten and Junior Section, and contains the 'O' and 'A' Level students.

[edit] Social Role

While the tuition at KGS is not as high as in other private schools in Karachi, for the majority of students from low to middle-income families, attending the school is not a feasible option.

Karachiite industrialists and capitalists recognize the prestige and status that the school occupies. As a result, the school is attended by the children of some of the wealthiest and most influential families in Asia. Attendance at the school has consequently acquired a meaning that stretches beyond a measure of one's intellect, and is in fact used as a measure of social status.

[edit] Famous Alumni

[edit] Notable Principals

CN Wrigley, BSc (Dunelm), MEd (Bham), FCollP - Three times Principal, former Vice-Principal
R Glazebrook - Murder victim
L Papworth - Of which Papworth house is named.
CW Haskell MBE
GA Dolman OBE