Our impact
Good schools within reach of rural families, well-trained teachers and pupils with real choices ahead of them: this is what your support helps make possible.
Why it matters
In rural Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), a good school has not always been within reach. When the Kashmir Education Foundation (KEF) opened Pearl Valley Public School in Rawalakot in 1996, there was, in our patron’s words, “just a small handful” of schools in the area.
Access is only half of it. Many teachers in Pakistan were themselves taught by rote, memorising for examinations without being helped to understand or apply what they learned. The schools and college we support focus instead on understanding, critical thinking and confidence.
Girls face the steepest climb. In 2018, Human Rights Watch reported that 32% of primary-school-age girls in Pakistan were out of school, compared with 21% of boys (Shall I Feed My Daughter, or Educate Her?).
Banjosa Lake, which gives Banjosa Valley Public School its name.
Where we work
With our partner, the Kashmir Education Foundation (KEF), we support three schools and a college: Pearl Valley Public School in Rawalakot, AJK; Soan Valley Public School and the Joan Atkinson College of Teacher Education, which share a site in Bassali, near Rawat in Rawalpindi district; and Banjosa Valley Public School in Banjosa, AJK.
Who we help
Our support reaches pupils, the women who train to teach them, and the families and villages around each school.
Pupils, girls and boys
Girls and boys are taught to understand and apply what they learn, not just to memorise it. According to KEF, girls are 49.7% of pupils at Pearl Valley, 31.2% at Soan Valley and 53.7% at Banjosa Valley. Places do not depend on what a family can pay.
Trainee teachers
Young women train as primary teachers at the Joan Atkinson College of Teacher Education, earning a Diploma in Primary Education and practising in classrooms at Soan Valley Public School.
Families and communities
Bursaries help the best pupils who apply to take up a place, whatever their family can afford. Women trained at the college can teach in schools in their own localities.
Stories from the schools
Two pupils at Pearl Valley Public School and a UK-qualified teacher who volunteered at Soan Valley describe, in their own words, what the schools have meant to them.
Progress we can see
According to KEF, Pearl Valley Public School has 404 graduates, among them 91 doctors, 68 lecturers and professors and 47 engineers. Alumni have gone on to universities including LUMS, NUST and Bahria, and the libraries at Pearl Valley and Soan Valley hold thousands of books between them.
1996
Pearl Valley, KEF’s first school, opens
404
Pearl Valley graduates, according to KEF
15,000+
books in Pearl Valley’s library
10,000+
books in Soan Valley’s Anna Finn library
What our patron saw
Our patron, Sir David Green KCMG CVO, has visited all of KEF’s centres, most recently in April 2025. On an earlier visit, in November 2018, he found a class learning fractions by jumping into boxes painted on the playground, classrooms where even the walls and floors are put to educational use, and a policy of admitting the best pupils who apply regardless of their ability to pay.
“The students were highly motivated and I was particularly struck by their level of confidence generally and their proficiency in English.”
Our patron in the computer lab, and being welcomed by staff and pupils, at Banjosa Valley Public School in November 2018. Select a photo to enlarge it.
Help more children reach a good school
Your gift supports the schools, the college and the teachers who make this progress possible.