Pakistan's First Public School
Abbottabad Public School Character is Destiny.
A residential school for boys in grades VII – XII, set among the pine‑covered hills above Abbottabad, on the road that becomes the Karakoram Highway. Since 1957.
Enter the Digital ProspectusWelcome to APS
A school built on character, since 1957
Abbottabad Public School sits on fifty‑five acres in the hills above the city, on the Mansehra Road that runs on toward the Karakoram Highway — chosen in the 1950s for a setting almost nowhere else in Pakistan can match: pine forest, deep valleys and a single mountain wall at its back.
It is a boarding school for boys in grades VII through XII, built in the tradition of the British public school and shaped by the character of the Frontier: rigorous in the classroom, serious about sport, and organised — as it has been from the start — around eight boarding houses that become, for six years, a second family.
Read our history
Campus — Mansehra Road, Abbottabad
APS by the Numbers
Inside a classroom — Academic Block
Academics
Learning that extends beyond the classroom
APS prepares boys for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Textbook Board examinations at Matriculation and Intermediate level, but the classroom is only where the day starts. Small teaching groups, a resident teaching staff, and a culture that expects boys to argue their own case — in class, in debate, on the games field — do the rest.
- KP Textbook Board curriculum, Matric & FSc streams
- Cambridge O-Level / IGCSE pathway now available at APS
- Resident subject staff, on campus day and evening
- Evening prep supervised within each boarding house
Facilities
Purpose-built science & computer labs
Physics Lab
Chemistry Lab
Biology Lab
Science Block
New Pathway
Cambridge O-Level & IGCSE at APS
Alongside the KP Textbook Board stream, APS now offers a full Cambridge O-Level / IGCSE pathway — opening doors to A-Levels, international universities, and the widest possible set of choices after Grade XII, without leaving the campus where the boy has grown up.
- Registered Cambridge International school
- Same resident staff, same houses, same character-first ethos
- Prepares boys directly for A-Levels and overseas university entry
Cambridge O-Level / IGCSE Pathway
Boarding
Eight houses. One family.
Every boy at APS belongs to a house from his first day to his last. Each has its own dormitories, dining hall, prep rooms and a House Master who knows every boy by name — and each carries the name of someone the school still asks its students to measure themselves against.
Continue to Sport
Debate Society
Poetic Evening
School Mosque
Student Life
A day at APS runs on more than a timetable
Beyond lessons and games, APS runs on a rhythm of clubs, societies and house competitions that every boy is expected to take part in — not spectate.
- 01
Debate & Literary Society
Inter‑house and inter‑school debate, declamation and Urdu & English literary events.
- 02
Prefect System
Senior boys in every house hold real responsibility for the boys below them.
- 03
Clubs & Societies
From the Scouts to the Photography Club, each term brings its own calendar of activity.
- 04
House Competitions
Music, drama and general knowledge contests run alongside the sporting calendar year‑round.
Heritage
Since 1957
Nearly seventy years in the same hills, under the same mountain.
1956
Land in the hills outside Abbottabad is set aside by Pakistan Railways for a new residential school — chosen for a setting almost nowhere else in the country could match.
1957
Foundations are laid on the Mansehra Road site, and the vision of Pakistan's first public school begins to take physical shape.
1961
The school opens its doors under founding Principal M.A. Rehman, admitting its first boys as Pakistan's first institution of its kind.
1960s–70s
The eight boarding houses are established, each named for a figure the school still asks its students to measure themselves against.
2025
Mr. Akhtar Ali Qureshi assumes charge as Principal, the school's eleventh, carrying forward the tradition set by M.A. Rehman in 1961 and towards digitalization.
Today
APS continues as one of Pakistan's most respected schools for boys — shaped, as it always has been, by the hills that surround it.
Leadership
A Message from the Principal
"APS asks something specific of every boy who comes through its gates: that he try hardest not when he is watched, but when he is not. That has been true of this school since 1957, and it remains the whole of what we mean by 'Character is Destiny.' Whether on the games field, in the classroom, or in his house at night, a boy's character is being built here — and it is the thing he will carry longest after he leaves us."
Mr. Akhtar Ali Qureshi
Principal, Abbottabad Public School
Admissions
Begin Your APS Journey
Entry to APS is by competitive test, primarily for grade VII, with limited lateral entry into higher grades where places allow. Boarding places are offered alongside day admission for boys from Abbottabad.