Over time, that system weakened. Buildings deteriorated, teacher morale eroded, and curiosity was slowly replaced by mechanical memorisation. The Peela School retained its colour, but much of its spirit faded. Public education began to symbolise survival rather than possibility. Degrees multiplied, but imagination thinned.
It was with this history in mind that I first served as a judge at STEAM Muqablo 2025 and found myself unexpectedly hopeful.
STEAM Pakistan, an initiative of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, aims to embed science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics into government schools through experiential learning. What unfolded inside Sindh’s public schools, however, was not simply a science competition. It was a quiet cultural shift.
Students from grades six to eight stood beside models built from cardboard, bottles, wires and scrap — explaining, with clarity and confidence, how their ideas could improve everyday life. They spoke of safer routes to school, redesigned classrooms, sustainable neighborhoods, imaginative play spaces and symbolic structures reflecting social and environmental concerns. These were not decorative displays. They were arguments. Observations. Proposals.
More powerful than the projects was the posture of the students. They did not wait to be examined. They invited dialogue. They defended ideas. They revised explanations. In those corridors, the government school briefly became what it was always meant to be: a space where children practice reasoning, empathy and agency.
Teachers, too, had changed. Many were no longer delivering content from a fixed script. They were guiding inquiry, encouraging iteration and allowing productive failure. The classroom had shifted from a site of instruction to a space of exploration. This transition — from authority to facilitation — may be the most meaningful reform of all.
STEAM Pakistan’s deeper value lies here. It is not merely adding new subjects or introducing technology. It is restoring the purpose of schooling: to cultivate curiosity, problem-solving, collaboration and relevance. Through STEAM Clubs, Safeer sessions with professionals, Teacher Hubs and a structured “STEAM School Journey”, schools are encouraged to grow annually, document practice and deepen engagement. Learning becomes iterative, not terminal.
When I returned this year as a judge for STEAM Muqablo 2026, the revival felt unmistakable. Under the theme #ReimagineSindh, hundreds of schools across all 30 districts participated. Thousands of students examined their physical environments including neighborhoods, transport routes, classrooms and playgrounds and proposed tangible redesigns. What stood out was resourcefulness. With limited means, they built meaning. Constraints were not obstacles; they were creative engines.
Across districts, projects reflected a shared realisation: education does not begin and end with textbooks. It begins with noticing, questioning and shaping one’s surroundings. This is precisely what public schooling must reclaim if it is to remain socially relevant.
The impact of STEAM Muqablo extends beyond competition. It reshapes school culture. It gives students ownership of learning. It invites communities to re-imagine what government schools can be. It encourages teachers to see themselves as designers of learning rather than transmitters of syllabi.
Yet revival cannot survive on inspiration alone. It requires sustained policy support, integration into teacher training and long-term investment.
Still, what I witnessed was unmistakably hopeful. The spirit of the Peela School has not disappeared. It is being reborn, not in nostalgia, but in imagination; not in repetition, but in invention.