WHEN I look at the schooling system in Pakistan today, I sometimes wonder whether we are educating children or simply keeping them busy until they become adults. I say this with some personal experience. Growing up, I probably had some degree of what we now call ADHD, although nobody knew about it then. My parents apparently thought I was not very intelligent, so they kept changing my school. I started at St Helen’s Convent, then went to Beaconhouse, Islamabad Model College for Boys and finally Sadiq Public School. I suppose I tasted almost every flavor of Pakistani schooling. Ironically, I only discovered that I could actually learn when I entered medical school. For the first time, I had some freedom to think, read and learn in my own way. Something strange happened. I became good at it.

I completed my MBBS, a masters and a PhD in public health, passed MCPS and MRCGP........

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