When I first wrote about the "new life of the peela school" in these columns, on 31 January 2026, I was trying to name a quiet shift I witnessed while judging STEAM Muqablo: government-school corridors, for a brief but meaningful moment, becoming what they were always meant to be - spaces where children practise reasoning, empathy and agency. As I had opined, I grew up within those yellow walls: chalk-dusted blackboards, morning assemblies, and a time when learning carried a certain seriousness and teachers carried an unquestioned social respect. Over the years, I watched that spirit gradually thin out, replaced by mechanical memorisation and institutional fatigue. Yet STEAM Muqablo was not simply a competition; it felt like the revival of an attitude and a classroom culture we have been missing for too long. Students stood beside modest, resource-limited models and spoke with remarkable clarity - explaining each step, defending their ideas, revising their arguments, and inviting dialogue instead of waiting to be........

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