Chairman and Members of the Managing Committee,

The Principal,

Teachers, parents and students,

 Thank you very much for inviting me to be the Chief Guest at the Annual Prize Distribution of the Bai Virbaiji Soparivala Parsi High School. My wife who is with me is also grateful to you for your kind invitation.

 May I begin by saying that I was moved by the prayer to Ahura Mazda and have requested the Principal to let me have the text of the recitations.

 I would like to thank the Chairman of the Managing Committee for his warm words of welcome.

 It is a great honour and an immense pleasure for me to be here today, more so as I am a Karachiite and know your School by its reputation for excellence. I am doubly honoured because this year you are celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the School. Please accept my heartiest congratulations.

 I listened with interest to the Principal’s report and the impressive achievements of the School, for which I congratulate you and also convey my best wishes for your future plans. I totally endorse what the Principal has said about the crucial importance of the environment and I urge students to act accordingly because it is their future that will be affected.

 Let me say how delighted I am that the BVS Parsi High School has opted for affiliation with the Aga Khan University Examination Board. This I believe demonstrates the School’s desire and commitment to improve the quality of education and to become competitive in international standards. In fact, by using the tools and tests of the Examination Board, students are developing a higher capacity for critical and logical thinking and problem solving, which are skills that will help them throughout their lives.

Dear students,

 I am sure you realize how privileged you are to be in this School and that the experience will stand you in good stead throughout your lives. The test which has been applied to this school has not only been in its intellectual successes. The test has also been a moral one: has the School produced worthy citizens, sincere, honest, loyal and generous? I am sure it has, and will continue to do so in the future. I am also sure that this education will bring you rewarding careers and enable you to make a lasting contribution to society and to your country.

 Your teachers know that one of the purposes of the education they have imparted to you is to ensure that by the time you leave school, each one of you also knows how much you still do not know, and at the same time are instilled with a life-long desire to know more.

 Let me therefore emphasize the need for life-long learning, the need to embark on a journey of discovery into new areas of knowledge and understanding. You must continue your education, in the broad sense, throughout your lives in order to develop yourselves as whole persons, and to be able to participate in all areas of society. In this fast changing world you cannot afford to be someone who has received a good education but failed to keep up with changes.

 Allow me to recall what a former Principal of my old school, the Karachi Grammar School, told us 53 years ago at Speech Day. He said that real education had two important facets, the first being the teaching of a standard of values, so that a pupil may learn to distinguish what is important from what has no permanent value, and to be able to recognize the best.

 Secondly, that wisdom is acquired not necessarily from learning, for the learned may not always be wise. Wisdom is got, he said, by the endless effort to understand your fellows and to see their point of view. And that this cannot come to a mind that has not been sharpened or prepared by the methods of education.

 He went on to say that wisdom breeds tolerance and that the wise man realizes the need for diversity in unity, and yet unity in diversity. Finally, he said, wisdom demands that the student should think internationally in the years to come.

On this Annual Prize Distribution day, let me pick up on the concept of thinking internationally and share with you some thoughts on international understanding. I believe that by keeping in mind the spirit of international understanding each one of you can contribute individually to make this a better, more peaceful world.

 Do remember that no effective development can happen without the pre-conditions of a healthy civil society, and a commitment to pluralism. Pluralism is as important as human rights in ensuring peace and a better quality of life.  But pluralism does not happen by accident. It is the product of enlightened education, moral and material investment by governments and the recognition by all of us of our common humanity.  We have seen how the rejection of pluralism has incited hatred and conflict among many nations, cultures and religions. Thus, pluralism is critical to peaceful, harmonious understanding.

 So do remember that it is by working in harmony that one can be effective, by recognizing that we live in an increasingly interdependent world, and one in which we have an ever growing need to rely upon each other. Thus, with concerted effort we can achieve more. The challenges you face are immense, but the opportunities for change are equally great.

 As you proceed through the 21^st century, you must carry with you the lessons of your experiences here at the BVS Parsi School, and remember that national and international understanding begins in the hearts and minds of young people like yourselves.

 It is thanks to enlightened persons from the Parsi community that we can be proud of having a school like yours in Karachi. And here I would like to pay homage to them, in particular Seth Shahpurji Hormusji Soparivala who sowed the first seed for this school in 1859. I now learn that the Chairman is his great, great grandson…  

 Incidentally, you would be interested to know that the Soparivala family made a very generous donation to the Aga Khan University in 1993. This donation resulted in the new Soparivala Building on the University campus with state-of-the-art laboratory facilities for testing patient samples, as well as for research. In addition, an endowment was established which provides financial assistance to needy patients at the Aga Khan University Hospital.

 And we cannot forget that it is the same enlightened persons who at the request of the founder of the nation took the decision in 1947 to open the doors of your School for the first time to non Parsis.

 Let me conclude by saying that it is you, all the students here today, who embody our hopes for the future. What Quaid-e-Azam said in 1947 is as valid today as it was then. He said: “You are the nation builders of tomorrow… you should realize the magnitude of your responsibility and be ready to bear it.”

 My heartiest congratulations to those who are receiving prizes today, as well as to their families, and to their friends ! I wish you every success in all you do in the years ahead, when you will be given opportunities to practice the skills you have learnt in this fine institution.

Thank you.