Carey Schofield

Carey Schofield OBE (born 1953) is the British principal of Langlands School and College in Pakistan, noted for its academic excellence. She had a previous career as a journalist and writer, particularly on military affairs.

Career

Chitral in summer

Chitral map

Writing

After a degree in English at Clare College, Cambridge,[1] in the late 1970s Schofield began working as a journalist, and wrote her first book, a lively biography of the French gangster Jacques Mesrine. This was followed by "a coolheaded, slickly written account"[2] of the life of Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. From rock biography she went on to military affairs, publishing two books on the Soviet Army. With the support of the President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf, Schofield spent five years embedded with the Pakistan Armed Forces, interviewing all ranks for Inside the Pakistan Army (2011)[3] One of her informants was Special Forces commander Ameer Faisal Alavi, assassinated in 2008.[4] During these years, she reported for the Sunday Times.[5]

Langlands College

Although she had experience as a state school governor in Britain, she had never taught for a living before taking on the challenge of leading Langlands School and College, in North-west Pakistan. The school, despite its remote location (in Chitral in the Hindu Kush mountains), had developed a reputation for academic excellence, sending its students on to national and international universities.[6] The man it was named for - and its head for almost all of its existence - was Major Geoffrey Langlands, a legend in Pakistani education, having taught many of the country's elite.[7] He was in his 90s, and Schofield was brought in to help recruit his successor, but instead was offered the job herself.[8] He described her as "extraordinary", not least because she was unafraid of the security situation, which had frightened away several candidates.[9] Aaj News interviewed her shortly after her appointment:

Miss Schofield has forsaken her home near London’s fashionable Sloane Square for a mountain fastness. So why, at the age of 59, has she abandoned an enviable lifestyle in Britain to come here? “Because it would be nice to make a difference,” she says, speaking for the first time about her new job. “It is good in middle age to be able to do something useful. The College and its associated primary schools educate a thousand pupils. If we can turn them around it will improve a thousand young lives. The job is daunting but worth doing.” And the Taliban? “Chitral is safer than Chelsea [a prosperous area of central London]. [...] The risk is very slight.”[10]

In the years following the Major's stroke, his ability to manage the school had declined, and Schofield had some hard decisions to take at the beginning of her tenure; she described the school as being "in a parlous state".[11] She sacked seven members of staff (including the vice-principal)[12] for "conduct unbecoming", which led to plotting against her; while she was out of the country, her work visa was denied, leaving her unable to return.[13][14] Her enforced absence coincided with the October 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake and exceptionally bad flooding in the region,[15] which complicated matters as she tried to run the school from her kitchen table in London.[16]

The Board of Governors respected her efforts to turn the school around, and following lobbying by her staff, after eight months Schofield was allowed to return. She has improved discipline and finances.[17] Her innovations at the school, where all lessons are in English, include appointing a learning support coordinator for pupils with dyslexia and dyspraxia, and "working to strengthen contacts with leading schools and educationists from across the world".[18]

In the 2019 New Year Honours, she was awarded an OBE for "services to education and the community in northern Pakistan".[19]

Works

• Mesrine - The Life and Death of a Supercrook. Penguin, 1980.
• Jagger. Methuen Publishing, 1983.
• Inside the Soviet Military. Abbeville Press, 1991.
• The Russian Elite: Inside Spetsnaz and the Airborne Forces. Greenhill Books, 1993.
• Inside the Pakistan Army: A Woman’s Experience on the Frontline of the War on Terror. Biteback Publishing, 2011.

References

1. "From Clare to Chitral" (PDF). Clare News (32): 15. 2014.
2. Holden, Stephen (21 July 1985). "In Short: Nonfiction". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
3. "Why Shahid Afridi is right: Pakistan needs to give up its Kashmir-obsession to realise its growth potential | India News". www.timesnownews.com. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
4. BURLEIGH, MICHAEL (October 2011). "Army Dreamers". standpointmag.co.uk. Standpoint. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
5. "Mystery grows over general's slaying in Pakistan". Reuters. 15 December 2008. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
6. Walsh, Declan (9 August 2009). "He has been kidnapped and taken tea with princesses: a British major's life teaching in Pakistan's Hindu Kush". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
7. Walsh, Declan (9 August 2009). "He has been kidnapped and taken tea with princesses: a British major's life teaching in Pakistan's Hindu Kush". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
8. Tweedie, Neil (13 June 2012). "Major Geoffrey Langlands, 94, leaves his post in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province after 60 years". Telegraph. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
9. Crilly, Rob (11 June 2012). "British major and founder of remote Pakistan school to retire, aged 94". Retrieved 7 January 2019.
10. Ahmed, Alize. "Campaigner of education: Major Geoffrey of the Hindu Kush retires from school". Aaj News. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
11. "Homecoming: 'It never occurred to me to stay away from Chitral'". The Express Tribune. 19 February 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
12. Boone, Jon (26 June 2015). "Legendary Englishman in row over fate of Pakistan school that bears his name". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
13. Rashid, Salman (9 August 2015). "Chitral and back in a jiffy". TNS - The News on Sunday. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
14. "Unseemly controversy". Daily Times. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
15. "300,000 Stranded by Floods in Chitral, Pakistan". floodlist.com. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
16. Boone, Jon (15 February 2016). "Exiled head returns to Pakistan school after legendary predecessor relents". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
17. Boone, Jon (26 June 2015). "Legendary Englishman in row over fate of Pakistan school that bears his name". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
18. "Homecoming: 'It never occurred to me to stay away from Chitral'". The Express Tribune. 19 February 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
19. "New Year 2019. Diplomatic Service and Overseas List" (PDF). GOV.UK.

Further reading

• Sunday Times interview (paywall)