Arts help students think out of the box: Pepperdine Executive Director

Pakistan Today got in touch with Pepperdine School’s Executive Director Nayab Raza Bukhari and discussed with him how his school, unlike others, gave arts its due importance in their curriculum.

Bokhari said, “Arts education is an integral part of the development of each human being. The learned have always emphasised on the importance of arts in the education process.”

He added than an arts education was integral to our society as it helped students “think out of the box and be more creative”.

“Our main focus at Pepperdine is to bring out the talent of children rather than focusing on learning which other schools are doing. It is a proved psychological fact that if you keep on forcing a child to learn, 80 percent of the intelligence could be lost,” he said.

The director said that the basic problem with our education system was an undue focus on predefined limits of courses and not thinking out of the box.

“This is the reason we are lagging behind so much. We should prepare our children not just to lead but to bring about a positive change in the society. Focus should be on creativity and innovation,” he said.

Bokhari said he did not run his school as a business enterprise. “We charge students half the fee other schools charge,” he said.

When asked how private schools were helping the society in general, he said, “Our role is of immense importance as the Pakistan government allocates very little money to education sector. In my opinion, private schools are the backbone of our education system”.