Langlands School and College

Last updated
Langlands School and College
Location
Chitral

Pakistan
Information
Type Private
Motto"There is always room for improvement"
Opened1988
Principal Carey Schofield (since 2012)
Enrollment1,000

Langlands School and College, in Chitral, North-West Pakistan, [1] formerly known as Sayurj Public School, educates about a thousand pupils, aged from four to eighteen, on four separate sites in and above the town of Chitral. [2] More than a third of the pupils are girls, and the school has a record of academic excellence. The best students have gone on to scholarships in Lahore, doctorates in Australia and exchange programmes in America. The school is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 as a non-profit institution. [3] Although private, school fees are very low, even by local standards. [1]

The school was founded in 1988 as a school for boys and girls aged five to ten years old. [2] The following year, former British major Geoffrey D Langlands arrived to take over as headmaster. He, who had been a teacher in mathematics in Croydon before World War II, [4] had arrived in British India on a troop carrier in 1944, [1] and remained when India and Pakistan became independent nations; first as an instructor for the young Pakistani army for six years; and from 1953 as a teacher at Aitchison College in Lahore [4] In 1979 he left Aitchison College for a position as headmaster of Cadet College Razmak, in North Waziristan, where he stayed until he was offered to take over the running of the school in Chitral. [2]

When Langlands arrived in 1989, the school had 80 pupils, from nursery school to Class 4, and six female teachers, but under his direction the school grew quickly, with a new class added each year. Today, the school In 1993 he recruited the first male teachers, to teach science subjects. Today, the majority of teachers in the senior school are men. [2]

From the start, Langlands was a staunch advocate of education for girls in Chitral, insisting on teaching them up to the age of eighteen. He encountered stiff opposition to this, but eventually convinced local leaders that society needed educated women.[ citation needed ] Girls are taught separately in the senior school, but they enjoy access to all the school's facilities. [2]

After suffering a stroke in 2008, the then 91-year-old Langlands started to contemplate retirement, [1] and in September 2012, leadership of the school was transferred from the 94-year-old founder to 58-year-old British woman Carey Schofield, [5] a foreign correspondent for London based newspapers for several decades and author of several books on military matters, among them Inside the Pakistan Army (2011). [6]

Upset that the new principal reported the real state of the school to trustees. He went to the Minister of Interior without the knowledge of the Trustees or Governors and persuaded Mr. Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan (his old Aitchison pupil) to block her visa. [7] Mr Langlands attempted to seize control of the school and its bank accounts, pretending to be the owner and founder of the school. [3]

The issue became public in Pakistan with questions raised in the Senate over Major Langlands behaviour. The Senate supported Schofield, as did the Governors and parents. The teachers of the school supported Schofield and all travelled to Lahore to berate Langlands for his unseemly conduct.

Carey Schofield returned to Chitral in January 2016 to take up the helm again. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khyber Pakhtunkhwa</span> Province of Pakistan

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a province of Pakistan. Located in the northwestern region of the country, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the fourth largest province of Pakistan by land area and the third-largest province by population. It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Balochistan to the south, Punjab to the south-east, the territory of Gilgit-Baltistan to the north and north-east, Islamabad Capital Territory to the east and Azad Kashmir to the north-east. It shares an international border with Afghanistan to the west. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a varied landscape ranging from rugged mountain ranges, valleys, plains surrounded by hills, undulating submontane areas and dense agricultural farms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hindu Kush</span> Mountain range near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan

The Hindu Kush is an 800-kilometre-long (500 mi) mountain range on the Iranian Plateau in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and eastern Afghanistan into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan. The range forms the western section of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region (HKH); to the north, near its northeastern end, the Hindu Kush buttresses the Pamir Mountains near the point where the borders of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, after which it runs southwest through Pakistan and into Afghanistan near their border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaranwala</span> City in Punjab, Pakistan

Jaranwala is a city and capital of Jaranwala Tehsil located in the Faisalabad District of Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 58th largest city of Pakistan. It also one of the biggest tehsil by population in the province of Punjab in Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aitchison College</span> Semi-private school in Punjab, Pakistan

Aitchison College is an independent, semi-private boys school for boarding and day students from grade 1–13 in Lahore, Pakistan. It has a tradition of providing an education that uses academics, sports, and co-curricular activities as tools for character development. The school follows a curriculum designed to culminate in the International General Certificate of Education and AS Level/A Level qualifications and is geared towards preparing students for university education. The institute is the only Pakistani school that is a member of the G30 Schools of the World. Aitchison has educated former Prime Ministers, including the iconic Imran Khan, and former President Farooq Leghari, lawyers, cricketers, and politicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dir (princely state)</span> Princely state of British India and later Pakistan

Dir was a princely state in a subsidiary alliance with the British Raj, located within the North-West Frontier Province. Following the Partition of British India, Dir remained independent and unaligned until February 1948, when the Dominion of Pakistan accepted its accession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ganga Ram</span> Indian architect & businessman (1851–1927)

Rai Bahadur Sir Ganga Ram was a British Indian civil engineer and architect. His extensive contributions to the urban fabric of Lahore, then in colonial India and now in modern Pakistan, caused Khaled Ahmed to describe him as "The Father of Modern Lahore".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Scott Robertson</span>

Sir George Scott Robertson, was a British soldier, author, and administrator who was best known for his arduous journey to the remote and rugged region of Kafiristan in what is now northeastern Afghanistan and for his overall command of British Empire forces during the Siege of Chitral. He chronicled his Kafiristan experience in the book The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush. Some have suggested that Robertson's year-long expedition and subsequent book provided background and inspiration for Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Man Who Would Be King". However, Kipling's work was originally published in 1888, predating Robertson's travels to the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. K. von Goldstein</span> Indian educationist

Major R. K. von Goldstein was an Indian educationist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Combined Military Hospitals</span> Hospital in Nationwide, Pakistan

Combined Military Hospitals are Pakistan Armed Forces hospitals situated in various cantonments of Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ameer Faisal Alavi</span> Pakistan army officer (1954–2008)

Major General Ameer Faisal Alavi was a Pakistan Army two-star general and special operations expert who was the first General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the elite Special Service Group of Pakistan Army. A former member of Special Service Group, he was credited with masterminding the Angoor Ada operation in 2004, where many Arabs and Chechens based in the tribal areas were killed or arrested and turned over to the Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilgit Scouts</span> 1913–1975 paramilitary in Gilgit Agency, Jammu and Kashmir

The Gilgit Scouts constituted a paramilitary force of the Gilgit Agency in northern Jammu and Kashmir. They were raised by the government of British India in 1913, on behalf of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, to police the northern frontier of India.

Syed Babar Ali OBE is a Pakistani businessman, philanthropist and former caretaker Finance Minister of Pakistan. He is the founder of Packages Limited, Milkpak Limited and Lahore University of Management Sciences. Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering is named after him.

Chand Bagh School is an independent boarding school for boys at Muridke in the Sheikhupura District of Punjab, Pakistan, approximately 40 km north of Lahore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garam Chashma</span> Town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Garam Chashma is one of the many branch valleys of Chitral District, situated in the extreme north-west of Pakistan. It is one of the highest human settlements in the Hindukush ranges with an altitude of almost 2550 meters. The place is known for its hot spring, which is one of the tourist attraction sites. It is also famous for its trout fish. The water flowing down through the length of the valley is famous for fishing sports. The Lotkoh River running down from the lofty peaks of the Hindu Kush is most suitable for the brown type of trout fish. Other features of the area include snow-covered peaks, pleasant weather, and natural springs, and more recently, has remained in the limelight for being a potential site of hydropower generation. Besides tourists, people suffering from skin diseases also visit the hot spring for treatment. It is located in the northwest of Chitral at a distance of about forty-eight kilometres by road. It shares international borders with Afghanistan being situated in the extreme northwest of Pakistan. Dorāh Pass connects this part of Pakistan with Badakhshan, the adjacent province of Afghanistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Langlands</span> British educationalist (1917–2019)

Geoffrey Douglas Langlands CMG, MBE, HI, SPk was a British educationalist who spent most of his life teaching in and leading schools in Pakistan, instructing many of the country's elite. In World War II he served as a Major in the British Army, and afterwards in the British Indian Army, where he worked to keep the peace during the partition of the British Indian Empire in 1947. He transferred to the Pakistani Army at the birth of the country, and returned to a career in education, first of army officers. Then, at the invitation of the President, he joined the so-called "Eton of Pakistan", Aitchison College in Lahore. After 25 years there, he left to lead a military high school, Cadet College Razmak. He ended his career by taking on a new school in Chitral and raising it to internationally high standards; he continued to lead it into his 90s, when it was renamed in his honour Langlands School and College.

His Highness Sir Nasir ul-Mulk KCIE was the eldest son of Mehtar Shuja ul-Mulk, who succeeded him in 1936. He ruled the princely state of Chitral from 1936 to 1943.

Carey Schofield OBE is the British principal of Langlands School and College in Pakistan, noted for its academic excellence. She had a previous career as a journalist and writer, particularly on military affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khalid Iqbal</span> Pakistani painter, teacher

Khalid Iqbal was a Pakistani painter, art teacher and professor emeritus, appears known for landscape paintings as well as his natural forms paintings and portraits of Punjab, Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baman Das Basu</span>

Major Baman Das Basu was an Indian army physician, botanist, nationalist, historian, and writer. He resigned from the Indian Medical Service after serving in Chitral and Sudan due to the conflict with his nationalism and joined his brother Sris Chandra Basu in editing and publishing books on Hinduism from the Panini Office, Allahabad. A promoter of Indian medical traditions, he completed the botanical work begun by K.R. Kirtikar on Indian medicinal plants.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 The Guardian, 10 August 2009: He has been kidnapped and taken tea with princesses: a British major's life teaching in the Hindu Kush Relinked 2014-06-18
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Friends of Langlands School - About Linked 2023-04-06
  3. 1 2 "BoG member terms DC Chitral's claim ridiculous" . Retrieved 2017-10-22.
  4. 1 2 The Daily Telegraph, 30 March 2013: Goodbye to Major Geoffrey Langlands of the Hindu Kush Linked 2014-06-18
  5. ↑ The Sunday Times, 17 June 2012: Class, say hello to Miss Chips of the Hindu Kush Linked 2014-06-18
  6. ↑ Standpoint, October 2011: Army Dreamers - review of "'Inside the Pakistan Army" Linked 2014-06-18
  7. ↑ "Unseemly controversy - Daily Times". Daily Times. 2015-07-24. Retrieved 2017-10-22.
  8. ↑ Boone, Jon (15 February 2016). "Exiled head returns to Pakistan school after legendary predecessor relents". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 April 2023.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.