Garage schooling in Clifton since ’99

The small, well-equipped classroom in Karachi is filled with colour and life. A group of four-year-olds, dressed in matching green uniforms, listens attentively as a young teacher gives a lesson on shapes. When she asks a question, hands shoot in the air.
Welcome to The Garage School (TGS). As the name suggests, it resides in the garage of a bungalow, located in the upmarket residential area of Clifton. But none of the students are wealthy. They come from the nearby slums of Shah Rasool Colony and Neelum Colony. If not for the free education provided by TGS, most of these kids would probably end up as child labourers.
TGS was born of tragedy. In 1971 Shabina Mustafa was widowed at the age of 20, and for the next 32 years she worked as a reservations agent at Saudi Arabian Airlines and raised her son Syed Zain Mustafa. But she never forgot the dream of her late husband Syed Safi Mustafa, who often talked about one day opening a school for underprivileged students. Finally the opportunity presented itself in November 1999 when Sobia Riyasat, the daughter of Shabina’s maid, was refused admission to a sewing school because she could not read or write.
Shabina took on the job. “I decided to teach her myself. Every person has the right to education and one should not be denied due to lack of funds.”
Working in her spare time, Shabina began teaching the 11-year-old Sobia in a space set up in her garage. When parents from Sobia’s neighbourhood heard about this new school, they started sending their children there as well. Initially Shabina worked alone, but when the number of students grew to 40, she asked teachers she knew to volunteer their time at the school.
A key to the school’s success is Shabina’s gift for bringing people together. “In the initial days, Ghazala Nizami, principal of Happy Home School, sent me all the used leftover pencils, exercise books with few unused pages and tiffin boxes. Other schools also sent us newspapers which we sold to buy erasers and pencils,” Shabina said. “When people see that someone is genuinely helping the society, they try to be a part of it too.”
TGS’s mission is to provide a useful education to the underprivileged children in and around the Clifton area. When Abbas Vawda, a friend of Shabina visiting from the UK, heard about this, he began to sponsor 10 children annually so they could move into the regular school system. “Now we have a programme in place where anyone can sponsor a child or a teacher and pay for the medical expenses or uniforms, whatever one can afford to do,” Shabina said.
Education is now only part of the picture. New students are sent for health and dental checkups and a doctor comes around three times a week. Shabina’s older brother, Athar Ahmed, started a milk and biscuits programme so the students do not study on an empty stomach. TGS also offers informal training for older students and adults in subjects such as English and financial management.
As student numbers continued to grow, TGS opened a second school in a rented commercial building in Neelum Colony. With a team of paid and volunteer teachers, and drawing on donations of goods and money, TGS now offers free primary education to more than 250 children.
Shabina, who now works full-time overseeing the school, never stops thinking about what else she can do. “There is so much more to be done, so many more children and families to be helped. I want to establish another bigger branch of TGS so that more children can gain education. I want a better future for Pakistan.”