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Musa Khan is one of those teachers who have dedicated their lives to educating children in their communities. Now retired from Diamond Jubilee (DJ) High School, Gupis (Gilgit-Baltistan), he taught for almost three decades after joining Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan as a teacher at the age of 18. 

When asked to reflect on his teaching experiences, Khan focused more on the teachers who had taught his generation. Honouring their services, Khan called them “heroes”: “They got up to teach without facilities or teaching aids. They swept the schools, cleaned the bathrooms, as well as taught the students. Often, one teacher would teach the entire school, and be assigned up to 100 students at once. They were the ones who preached education, the ones who gave their life for the cause. It is because of them that Gupis is where it is today.”

“When I was younger, people didn’t know how to read. If we got a letter, we had to travel far to find someone who could tell us what it said. 51����,P — in fact, the consolidated efforts of the Aga Khan Development Network — has brought education to this valley. Where people once took their students out of school because tuition fees of Rs.5 seemed like too much to invest into education, they are now outraged if they feel a school is not of a good enough quality.”

Today, Gupis is a thriving town amongst a vast expanse of quiet mountains. “Now people have the knowledge to live, to think, to rise out of poverty,” says Khan. “This is thanks to the education this community has received. Today, every child in the area is enrolled in school.”