ISLAMABAD: "What is the biggest continent in the world?" Nawaz Sharif asks a group of shy students at Azaan Khan Shaheed Model School.
The prime minister (PM) spent a good part of Friday morning playing teacher to students at the revamped government school.
Accompanied by daughter Maryam Nawaz, he engaged in lively chit chat with students and quizzed them on various subjects during his visit.
His visit to the school in Islamabad's F-8 sector is part of the Prime Minister's Education Reforms initiative which aims to upgrade 422 schools. Twenty-one schools in Islamabad are to be revamped in the first phase of the project.
The premier also addressed students in what was dubbed the newly-inaugurated Nawaz Sharif Auditorium.
Nawaz quizzes students
In the classroom at Azaan Khan Shaheed Model School, Nawaz asks the young students one question after another. "How many continents are there?"
A student answers, "Seven!" to which the prime minister exclaims, "Very good, very good."
Next, he ask a student how many oceans there are in the world. When the students appears confused, he replies, laughing: "Five is the right answer!"
The prime minister also takes out a few minutes to listen to the students recite their ABCs.
"Is your father a gardener?" he asks another child. "Where does he work?"
"In the other house," the child replies, much to the delight of the PM and his daughter.
The PM while addressing students in the auditorium also expresses worry over the state of the school before it was upgraded.
"When I asked them how the school used to be, some said it was very bad... I was very happy to hear the children like the school," he says.
'First-ever govt montessori in Pakistan'
Maryam Nawaz on Feb 15 tweeted photos of an earlier visit to an upgraded school in Islamabad's F-8 sector.
Pakistan's first-ever government montessori, she says, was "revamped to the highest standard in less than eight weeks".
Posting 'before and after' comparisons of the school, she shares what appears to be a photo taken while the building was under construction and compares it to the finish result ─ young students playing together in a classroom.
Dark, bare walls are replaced with a colourful mural and paper mobiles hang from the ceiling.
A photo of a classroom shows cheerful murals along the walls, paper mobiles, a colourful bulletin board and child-sized tables and chairs.
A boundary wall of the montessori is lined with benches and potted plants.
Here she reviews whether the new computer lab is up to par:
She shares photos of students in the midst of an activity in a classroom. "This doesn't even look like a government school," she says.
Maryam Nawaz also tweeted a throwback to when Nawaz and herself worked at Sharif Trust schools and hospitals. "My father has always been my rock!" she exclaims.
PM Nawaz's education reforms programme came just a month after non-profit organisation Alif Ailaan released a 'report card' highlighting the subpar performance of MNAs in bringing demonstrable change to their constituencies during the two-and-a-half years that have elapsed since the 2013 elections.
Only seven out of 326 MNAs received A grades, while 181 received Bs and 138 received Cs. The PML-N had the greatest number of MNAs with B grades (109) and C grades (69) ─ but also has the greatest representation in the NA.
The report claims that even MNAs who received A grades would not send their own children to government schools, which shows that there is scope for improvement in the state of the public school system as well as in the effort that MNAs expend to support better education outcomes.
