Sister Zeph: “Education is everyone's responsability. Together"
She has gone from being a self-taught student to directing a work that educates thousands of children in Pakistan. From the Meeting, the story of the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2023.A life dedicated to education. Riffat Arif, better known as Sister Zeph, is a Pakistani educator who won the 2023 Global teacher award from the Varkey Foundation. Zeph is 40 years-old, and is a Christian. She left school at the age of 13 in 1997 because “no one could answer my questions,” she explained at the Rimini Meeting in a meeting with Rose Busingye. During the meeting she said, “I have never been so happy, I cried during the whole Mass, because here I feel like family, my family in Christ.” Her family is of humble origins – her mother, father, and three sisters – that was fortunate enough to “receive a primary education.” This is something not to be taken for granted in Pakistan, where “26.2 million do not go to school and only 22 % of women are emancipated.” Zeph continued to self-teacher until she earned two master's degrees in political science and history. She then founded Zephaniah, the work she directs and talks about as if it were a “son.” Set up in her backyard in Gujranwala, northeastern Punjab, she has secured the right to education for 3,000 children and helped empower 6,000 women. Initially penniless, working eight hours a day and teaching another four in the evenings, Zeph built the first school building with proceeds from an award she won in 2014. Today 28 teachers work there – many studied with her – and all programs are free.
How do you perceive education and what has led you to such recognition?
When a person lives without receiving an education, it is as if they were not really living. Because, when there is a lack of education, you lack air. It is as if our voice were stuck inside us, with no one to hear it. When, on the other hand, there is education, we learn what life is, we learn how to express ourselves, and we can become better people. Life, in fact, is about relationships, it is the investigation of reality to make the world a better place. Education gives hope, because it allows us to perceive the meaning of this world and gives us the words to describe it. Whereas, without education, there is no hope; we cannot have the courage to dream, because we would not even know how to find the way to realize our dreams. This is what I think about education.
The meeting with Rose was entitled , “It takes a village to educate,” which is a phrase that is dear to Pope Francis as well as to all the people of the Meeting. Do you share this judgment?
When we educate a child, we help them learn to live in a community, to be part of it. It is a process in which we are all involved. And, especially for those who are committed to a certain kind of community, it is important that everyone feels responsible, because education is not just the responsibility of the individual or a group of people. We realize this here at the Meeting, where there is a friendship that unites people from all over the world. In fact, only together can we make a difference, build peace, friendship and solidarity. So yes, it takes a village to educate. And if we want future generations to be truly able to deal with the complexity of challenges such as poverty, peace efforts or climate change, we need to be united.
I would like to take a step back and ask you more about your life and work journey.
A child's intelligence is dictated by curiosity: they want to know everything about their surroundings and therefore they ask those called to guide them for answers. But if their parents or teacher do not allow the child to express their questions, they block the child’s creativity, their passion. This is what happened to me. I dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but at my school I was not allowed to ask questions and my teachers were not engaged in a continuous learning process. So I thought it was time to leave school and I did, choosing to be my own teacher and promising myself that I would never return to any other educational institution. I invited several friends to my backyard and we started studying together. After a few days, however, I realized that if I wanted to offer free education to others, I would need resources, which I did not have. So I went to a neighbor and learned, at the age of thirteen, how to embroider. I continued to both work and teach until I was 27.
What do you teach in your school?
We teach digital literacy, but also more general subjects like math and English. Then there are art classes, tailoring and courses to learn how to work in beauty salons. We teach the importance of human rights, respect for different cultures and religions, and environmental protection so that our students can become global citizens. Then we teach our girls very concrete things, such as self-defense techniques, physical and mental, or, in the area of health education, the importance of breastfeeding. Our teachers also teach how to use the internet, how to read newspapers, how to critically watch the news and appropriately use social media. In short, we help each other to better understand the challenges of the world, but above all, we offer all our students the possibility of friendship.
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Did you have any role models, any teachers to follow?
The figure of Mother Teresa has always inspired me because of her unconditional love for everyone: she welcomed everyone, without choosing who to “keep” and who not to keep based on her personal experience, or who or what the person in front of her belonged to. This is what we also try to do at Zephaniah. If a child comes to us, it is because he or she needs an education. Period. The rest does not matter. What matters is giving our students an opportunity. Because the first right is the right to education. As the founder of the Global Teacher Prize says, “Whatever the question, education is the answer.”
