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NJV was established in 1855 as a primary school and it was originally located where the Dow Medical College today stands. In 1863, it was made into a secondary school and in the first half of the 20th century was shifted to its present site, says Abdul Wahab, principal of the Sindhi section. Yes, there are four schools in one compound, including an Urdu medium one.

The NJV School was the first government institution built by the municipality for the children of the local population. Initially it had 68 boys on its enrolment list. By 1884 there were 10 schools in the region that imparted education in vernacular languages - NJV was one of them. In the first decade of the 20th century the number of vernacular schools increased to 23 and the languages in which children were taught included Arabic-Sindhi, Hindu-Sindhi, Gujarati, Urdu and Marathi. There were nine vernacular institutions for girls and 14 for boys. This goes to show the importance that was attached to education at the time. Had that been emulated immediately after Pakistan's inception, things would have been far more palatable.

[Source: Karachi Legacies of Empires by Peerzada Salman]

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