DPS ‘opens’ its gates for prospective students

Dawood Public School holds an open day to showcase its recently established A level campus.

KARACHI:

Choosing a school is a headache for most parents as it is a decision that has a bearing on child’s entire life. To put the parents out of their misery, an increasing number of schools are adopting the relatively new trend of organising open days as newspaper ads, glossy brochures and word of mouth are no substitutes for actually visiting the school to get firsthand information. 

The Dawood Public School (DPS) joined the list of schools to subscribe to this trend and held an open day on Sunday to showcase its recently established A level campus. “The parents often get a feeling if the school is right for their child while visiting a campus and having casual meetings with the principal, faculty and alumni,” said Huma Thaver, the campus principal. “Parents question what we can do for their daughters and the open days are meant to answer just that.”

“I could get information about the school’s academic and extracurricular performance from home but I wanted to dig beneath the surface,” said Shahid Aslam, a satisfied parent who was later seen asking for a registration form.



The school, one of the few girls-only Cambridge system facilities, wore a festive look for the day. The classrooms on the first floor were turned into presentation rooms where faculty members were busy answering queries of the visiting parents.

The faculty conducted over 50 presentations and interactive multimedia demonstrations about the courses offered at the school over the course of the day. The currently enrolled students helped out with campus tours for the visitors.

Shariq Matin, a Thinking Skills teacher, told The Express Tribune that after taking the customary tour of the campus, parents got down to the real business and inquired about the subject combinations available at the school. “Most of them were interested in knowing where their child could go with a certain choice of subjects.”

Sabrina Dawood, the school CEO, said that DPS introduced its A level programme to facilitate young women in their quest of higher education.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2013.