SNPET Giving Options 2025

Sanjan Nagar School System (SNSS)

An IB-Wold School-Authorized IB-PYP-School (KG-10)

When Children Lead the Climate Conversation

Azizullah Safdar: Senior Manager Academics & Learning

ITA Pakistan

Yesterday at Sanjan Nagar School, I didn’t just attend a student event, I witnessed a generation rising. Their voices were small in age, but powerful in purpose.

As I entered the auditorium, the space was alive with energy and anticipation. Students held banners and posters filled with thought-provoking slogans, creative illustrations, and meaningful reminders about climate change; a crisis that Pakistan knows all too well. Floods, heatwaves, and environmental shifts have reshaped communities across our country, and seeing children speak about these challenges with clarity was both moving and inspiring.
This was not just an assembly; it was a classroom of awareness, advocacy, and action.

The event began with two student hosts confidently opening a discussion on climate change. They invited their peers to reflect on its causes, impacts, and the urgent need for action. Hands shot up excitedly as students shared their thoughts and came forward to speak. Their understanding was impressive as they knew the science, they understood the consequences, and most importantly, they believed in solutions.

One moment that stayed with me was a thoughtful exchange among 9th-grade students. They debated whether climate responsibility begins with individuals or requires collective community action. One side argued that personal responsibility reducing plastic use, saving water, planting trees can trigger change. The other emphasized that real impact lies in united community efforts. Both perspectives were powerful, and both were right; it starts with us, but it grows with all of us.

And then came one of the highlights of the day: A Grade 5 student named Aayra took the stage to recite a poem she had written herself, titled “Climate Change — The Cost of Human Choices.” Her words carried depth far beyond her age. Listening to her, I felt hopeful. If a child in Grade 5 can think, write, and speak like this about our planet, the future feels a little brighter.

What made this event special was not only the content but the diversity of expression bilingual discussions, debates, poems, questions, reflections, and young voices speaking with courage. Each segment covered that knowledge shared among students flows outward into families and communities.

Towards the end, the entire auditorium rose to make a pledge — students, teachers, and staff together. They promised to refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle. To avoid plastic bags, to minimize waste and to choose sustainability in daily habits. It wasn’t just a symbolic gesture; it felt sincere, grounded, and full of purpose.

It struck me how powerful a 45-minute school program can be. This was not a long event, but it carried a vision, a mission, and a message strong enough to shape thinking and lives.

These are the kinds of moments schools should nurture, moments where learning becomes leadership, and awareness becomes action. Climate education is not an extracurricular idea; it is a necessity, a responsibility, and a hope for Pakistan’s future.

Seeing the passion in those young eyes, I walked away believing — our children are not waiting for the future. They are already building it.

Pakistan Zindabad.