A C C Model School Wah R S

Journey of my life:

ACC Wah RS

A C Model School Wah R S - Primary and middle standard education 

Associated Cement Company Wah was set up in 1921 by Bombay based Indian company. In 1972 the company was nationalized. In 1974 it was under the control of State Cement Corporation of Pakistan with its new name Wah Cement Company. In 1996 it was acquired by Army Welfare trust (AWT) its name is Askari Cement Limited Wah.

During the whole process of handing and taking over the company what happened to the workers who shed their sweat and blood in grinding the hard rock’s of calcium carbonate into fine powder and finally high grad cement, no one knows. A beautiful small colony with neat and clean roads, colorful parks, happy and satisfied community deserted so rapidly as if it was under the control of a bad soul.

Here I would share my memories about my early education prior to 1961.

My father was one of its employees who spent his whole life in the service of the company. The management had provided enough civic amenities to its employees. There was a beautiful Middle school for the children of the workers known as A C Model School Wah R S.  It was my first school from where I graduated Middle Standard School Examination in 1961. The school was situated at a walking distance from the housing colony. It consists of a marvelous building comprising of airy and big classrooms with a huge multipurpose hall in the centre of the building. I can still see a big portrait of Quid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah hung in the center of the hall above the stage with pictures of prominent national heroes of Pakistan. On both outer sides of the main entrance, there were beautiful gardens. There were two play ground on left and right sides of the building. A huge flight of stairs just in front of the main hall entrance at some distance was joining it with a road known as Railway Road.

The headmaster and the teachers were also residing in the same colony. All the residents were known to each other like a big family. I could not forget my teachers. They were very kind, loving gentle, humble, firm and extremely devoted to their profession. They were true Pakistanis. They tried to inculcate love for Pakistan in the hearts and minds of the children based on true Islamic way of life. A lot of co-curriculum activities were carried out throughout the academic year.

Our respectable teachers

Ch Mohammad Saeed – Headmaster
Mr. Ishrat – second headmaster
Maulana Ghulam Ahmad, Ch M Yaqoob, Ch M Akram, Abdul Rashid, Ch Aslam, Shah Zaman, Ibrar Hussain and many more.
Annual events:
Sports day, Parents’ day, Prize giving ceremony. Annual speech competition, Essay writing competition, PT show, Out of school visits.
Sports: Foot ball, Volley ball, Cricket.

Morning Assembly:

Morning Assembly was the regular feature. It was always very graceful. All students used to line up in U formation with their class teacher. Recitation of holly Quran, translation, singing of Dua / National anthem, and address by the headmaster with important announcements were the regular feature of the morning assembly.

Some of  my class fellows:

Mohammad Ramzan Shabnum, M Saleem Siddique, Mohammad Akhtar, Mohammad Nawaz, Abdul Rauf,  Kaleem Raza Khan Shewani, Mohammad Nazir, Noor ul Basar, Abdul Rehman, Missal Khan, Taj, Ishaque, Noor Ahmad

A new block of 4/5 classrooms were constructed towards tennis court of AC Club. During winter, our class selected a small sunny area outside the building. We used to take our chairs to that area to study and enjoy the warmth of the sun.

Golden Revolution:

I forgot the exact date/year, but it was the time of Ayub Khan, when his revolution known as Golden revolution was celebrated throughout the country and as a part of the same celebration, I participated in an essay writing competition. My parents, teachers and I were extremely happy for winning the prize. Mass PT display, sports activities, Cricket and hockey matches were also organised as a part of the celebrations.

Lahore visit

In 1960, when I was in class 7, a trip was organised by our teachers to visit Lahore. We all were very excited. We could never think of this type of outing. I remembered we all had a note book to take notes of our experiences during the journey by train. We were very eager to write the names of the railway stations through which the train was passing. It was a very strange experience for us to see out of the moving train and watching green fields, poles, mounts, rivers, bridges, all running in one direction. When the train used to stop at a station, movement of the crowd was very amazing. Hackers were selling tea, pakoras, cold drinks and lot of other stuff on the platform. Our stay was organised in a local school. We all spread our mats on the floor to make our beds. It was a unique experience. The weather was very cold. One morning we saw one of our class fellows Kaleem Raza taking baths near a water tap in open air in underwear. We all appreciated the courage of Kaleem to take bath in such a low temperature early morning.
That visit to Lahore was a wonderful experience of my life. We visited Badshahi Masjid, Shalimar Garden, Bata Company, Zoo and museum. We also visited tomb of Jahangir. On the whole that tour provided a huge exposure to the students residing in a very small town far away from the main cities of the country.

First hand written Bulletin 

 Mohammad Ramzan Shabnam (Shabnam was his title) was a very talented student of our class. After school or some times in the evening, we used to complete our home work together at my home. He had a literary taste and used to write poems. Shabnam was his title. He used to prepare hand written Bulletin. The school news, essays, stories, poems, jokes and cartoons contributed by the young students were included in that bulletin. It was a wonderful opportunity for the young writers to enhance their literary and creative capabilities. To the best of my knowledge that was the first and last bulletin issued from A C Model School by the students community under the guidance of our enthusiastic teachers.

My Primary School teachers:

Mr. Ghulam Sarwar extremely dedicated teacher always dressed in white shalwar Kameez, with typical white turban used to come from Hasan Abdal daily but he was never late. A sharp knife was his ever ready tool to sharpen the kalams (straw pen) for the students. His desk was the main storage of the kalams (straw pens) for the students. He used to pinch the students in a very typical way whenever he wanted to give punishment. We all class fellows used to enjoy his way of pinching. He was my first teacher who taught me basics of numeracy. He was a great teacher. Thanks a lot for your dedication sir.    

Hafiz Jameel ur Rehman was our Islamiyat teacher. All duas and Ayats that we learnt by heart today were due to his efforts.

Special Assignment:

Our Form teacher was very vigilant. During the first period after marking attendance, he used to call the names of absent students. It was his routine that whenever Nasir and two other students were absent, he used to send a group of 4 students to search them out in the nearby colony or the gardens and to carry them back to the class. I was among one of the group who used to go out to find them. Our movement was like commandos.  Especially we were aware of the hideouts of Nasir. After making sure that Nazeer was in that particular place, we used to surround the area and then we move slowly towards Nasir.  Finally we used to grab him. I still remembered him yelling, screaming and efforts to escape from our grip. All the four strong men used to carry him above their shoulders. On approaching the school, Nasir helplessly started to beg us to allow him to walk on his feet to avoid punishment of the teacher.  But we never took that risk.  We used to drop him in the classroom. After dropping Nasir, on the ground, our role was finished. Now it was up to the teacher to discipline Nasir.

A C Model School to High School Hassan Abdal:

Our present school was a middle school. After class 8 the students had to leave this school. By the end of class 8, there was a Middle standard Board Examination conducted by Lahore Education Board. The Students from whole of the Punjab had to sit for that examination. It was a very competitive examination. Our headmaster and subjects teachers used to tell us the importance of this examination. They also conducted extra classes to improve our performance in the coming examination without any fee.  There was an honor board hung in the office of the headmaster bearing the names of the top students of our school in the Board examinations. I wished to see my name on that board. It was really a very exciting moment when the result of the examination was announced through the newspapers and our school grabbed three top positions in our district with 100% pass. Mohammad Ramzan got the first position, I was in second position and Akhtar Mahmood got third position. The brilliant success of our school was celebrated in the school as well as in the colony. Our Headmaster Ch Saeed Ahmad was very delighted. Next step was to go to the high school Hassan Abdal It was about 3 to 4 km away from our school. Our headmaster Ch Saeed decided to accompany us to get out admission in the high school. A horse cart (Tanga) was hired for transportation. The headmaster of the high school was informed by our headmaster. We were the celebrities of our school. So a very warm sends off was given to us.. We reached Govt; High School Hassan Abdal with our headmaster. He was feeling very proud. We were taken to the office of the headmaster of the high school. A very warm welcome was given to us. A group of high school teachers with the headmaster were present in the office. Our headmaster introduced us with the staff and the head master one by one. I still remember a big crowed of the students was gathered outside the office to see the students with outstanding results. It was a big honor for them to join their school.

During our two years stay in High school we brought very good name to the school as well.