Brief History of The Unique Educational Society
By  Miss. Shaheena Perveen Principal (Unique Private English Secondary School)
The Unique Educational Society’s history dates back to the year 1960, when Syed Mahmood and his wife Shah Jehan Begum founded the society with the help of imminent scholars and educationalist of the University of Karachi and its affiliated colleges, with the sole aim and object of establishing an institution which could impart good basic education.

Eventually, the Unique English School was established as Mr. Mahmood gave to the society the premises located at R.C. 8/6 Hospital Road, which was allotted to him in 1948 by the government of Sindh Directorate of Education.		 In the year 1972, the school and all its assets were nationalized by the government and the society’s founder, Syed Mahmood, was left with Pre-Primary classes and the premises where these classes were held.

This was a very heavy emotional blow to Mr.Mahmood, as he struggled up to 1973 to save Pre-Primary classes and watch the deterioration of the nationalized portion of the school.

This was obviously quite heart wrenching for someone who founded this school and worked so hard to elevate it to the excellence. He wound up dying heartbroken in 1973.
The school showed brilliant results in the Matric examinations. After Mr. Mahmood’s death, his wife Shajahan Begum continued her late husband’s mission and did a lot of improvements to the Pre-Primary classes so as to enable the children to get admission in good public schools.

She was assisted by her only son, Hashim Syed, who is living in the United States and was elected General Secretary of the society.

In 1988, Mrs. Mahmood fell seriously ill and it was a very difficult time for Mr. Hashim, as the premises needed a lot of repair work.

The building was very old and needed major repair work, including the complete replacement of the roof of the main building.		 Mr. Hashim came to Karachi in 1988 to take care of the problems facing the society and its institution. He spent almost six months re-organizing everything from the ground up to the new challenging environment.

Mrs. Mahmood died in February of 1989 and Mr. Hashim (her son) gave her residential area at R.C. 8/6 Hospital Road to the society for educational use.

In view of persistent requests of the parents and guardians, especially of those students who where residing in the vicinity,

the society decided to start primary classes and by the year 1993, a full fledged primary school was established , running in two shifts under the banner Unique ( Pvt.) English School.
The project wound up costing over 16 lakhs rupees and was completed in 1995.

Now, the parents and guardians were asking to elevate the school to a secondary level and due to their persistent demand and under great leadership of Mr. Hashim Syed (as general secretary), it was achieved in 1996.

There was a desperate need of additional space that required another major construction project and Mr. Hashim Syed came back to Karachi in March 2001 to undertake and solve the problems related to this project.		 Once again, he provided desperately needed leadership and funds to start this construction project.

It was a over 35 lakhs rupees project to modernize the existing building, adding a completely new floor with a modern computer lab, science room, and additional desperately needed classrooms to accommodate the increasing number of students.

This major project was completed at the end of 2002. Currently there are over 400 students enrolled.
The Unique Educational Society was incorporated in the state of Illinois on September 30th, 2002 and was registered as a non profit organization. On April 24th, 2003, the society was also granted tax exempt status by the IRS.

Future Plan The society has already applied for denationalization from the government of Pakistan’s nationalized portion of the school.

The premises for the nationalized portion is in very bad shape and requires immediate massive repair work.

In view of our own resources through private donations, the society will not seek any financial assistance from the government of Pakistan.		 In order to maintain its independence, our society never accepted any financial help from the government...

Our society plans to initiate a student/teachers exchange program between the United States and Pakistan in order to develop an understanding and appreciation of the two very different cultures.

The Unique Educational Society firmly believes that together we can build a better world peacefully through education, especially in a volatile country like Pakistan. Our main source of funding is through donations and every donation is greatly appreciated.