Complete set of 2 nos. of commemorative postage stamp on the Birth Centenary of Dr. Maria Montessori, acclaimed for her educational method for children :

Issued by Pakistan

Issued on Aug 31, 1970

Design : The format of the stamps is vertical. The portrait of Dr. Maria Montessori forms the subject of both the values. In the 20 Paisa stamp, the portrait is enclosed in red border while in 50 Paisa stamp it is in green border. The caption “BIRTH CENTENARY OF DR. MARIA MONTESSORI 1870-1970″ the words “Postage”, and “Pakistan” in Bengali, Urdu and English appear in yellow colour in both the values. The value “20 Paisa” and “50 Paisa” also appear in yellow in the lower left corner.

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Denomination : 20 & 50 Paisa

Colour :
20-Paisa : Red, Yellow, Blue and Black
50-Paisa : Green, Yellow, Blue and Black

Size of stamps : 44.5 x 32.5 mm.

Size of print : 41.5 x 29.5 mm.

Perforation gauge : 13 x 13 (c)

Quantity printed :
20-Paisa … 15,00,000
50-Paisa … 10,00,000

Number of stamps in each sheet : 50

Process of printing : Four Colour Litho–Offset

Printers : The Pakistan Security Printing Corporation Ltd., Karachi

Name : Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori

Born on Aug 31, 1870 at Chiaravalle, Marche, Italy

Died on May 6, 1952 at Noordwijk, South Holland, Netherlands

About : 

• “With Dr. Maria Montessori there came into the sphere of education a new and vertical impulse. There is not a civilized country which has not in some measure felt the impact of her vivifying principles“. Thus wrote Prof. E. Mortimer Standing of London University and biographer of Dr. Montessori. One can go on filling pages with quotations like the above, from sources all over the world from nearby Europe and far-off China. Montessori‘s influence has opened a new chapter in the realm of child care, understanding and education and has revealed new possibilities and potentials towards a reconstruction of human society. Nor it is an influence that has waned over the years. In 1907, with the establishment of her first school “the name Montessori flashed like a comet across the sphere of education”.
• The Birth Centenary of such a versatile genius, to be celebrated the world over on 31^st August, 1970, becomes a fitting occasion to project her mind and its brilliance all over the world and in the light of the universal principles which she established, to recharge our educational approach with its life-giving power. To commemorate this auspicious occasion Pakistan Post Office is issuing a set of two postage stamps of 20 Paisa and 50 Paisa denominations on 31st August, 70.
• Born in the small town of Chariavalle in the province of Ancona in Italy, Maria Montessori was the only child of stern Alesandra Montessori, a man decorated for military valour, and Renilde Steppani her devout mother, daughter of a famous philosopher, scientist and priest. Together they directed Maria‘s impulsive nature wisely yet lovingly. She was reared on the principles of obedience, courtesy, and duty. Love and concern for the down-trodden and distressed were instilled early in her nature in all kinds of practical ways.
• At school she was a bright student to whom all subjects were equally agreeable and in whom there was not the slightest streak of competition or academic ambition. Anxious to give their only child the best possible education, Maria‘s parents moved to Rome when she was twelve. At fourteen Maria had decided to take up engineering as a career. Since no seminary for girls catered for engineering, Maria was enrolled in a boy’s technical school, the only girl to do so in the whole of Italy. It was a formidable experience but the strong willed young girl endured it until her ambitions altered. She now wanted to study biology and later fixed her mind upon studying medicine. She gained admission to the medical college in Rome – again the only female medical student in the whole of Italy. In 1896, Maria Montessori emerged the first woman Doctor of Medicine in Italy.
• But her future lay in other directions and she was steadily marching to meet it. As an assistant doctor at the Psychiatric Clinic in the University of Rome, her duties took her into the asylums of the insane. What touched her most deeply there, was the condition of mentally retarded children who in those days were relegated to such asylums. Emphasising the fact in a series of lecturers, that these children needed education as much as normal ones, she succeeded in having a state orthophrenic school set up which she was assigned to direct from 1899-1901. Under her able guidance, the children, hitherto regarded as hopelessly deficient and therefore useless developed to an astonishing degree and were able to sit at public examinations with normal children, and pass. A storm of applause greeted this miracle. Dr. Montessori left the Orthophrenic School in capable hands for she felt the need for further studies and meditation in fact she was collecting and reversing her resources for an ‘unknown’ but definite mission.
• In 1904 Dr. Montessori was appointed Professor at the University of Rome where for four years she occupied the Chair of Anthropology. Her first major publication was Pedagogical Anthropology. By 1906 Dr. Montessori felt sufficiently prepared and eager to experiment with normal children. So great and wide-spread was this realisation that Dr. Montessori now gave up all her former activity in which she was achieving such singular success and devoted herself to further researches and experiments in the field of child care and development. The result has been not only a method of Education which is now applied in several countries up to the Secondary level but a whole new Psychology of the human individual, knowing which can influence the parents, adults, doctors, nurses, social workers and all working for the child towards better results in their work.
• Old habits die hard. Dr. Montessori worked ceaselessly to break down old prejudices. Her work and her desire to help the world’s children brought her to India in September, 1939. She first landed at Karachi and was enthusiastically received at a reception. Then she proceeded to Madras where she started her first training course in the sub-continent. She conducted several courses in Madras, Gwalior, Ahmedabad, Kodaikanal, Kashmir and in 1946 in Karachi. The first Pakistan Montessori Training Course was held in 1949, again at Karachi.
• Dr. Montessori‘s researches continued throughout her life and she incorporated her theories in the many books which she wrote and published. On 6^th May, 1952, this marvellous woman, nearly 82 years old, was working in her bed, writing, in a little village home in Holland, facing the sea. It was afternoon and she asked for lunch. But before she could finish it – the heart just stopped and the dynamic spirit quietly slipped out to soar other heights more conducive to its majesty and greatness.
• Issued by The Director-General, Pakistan Post Office, Karachi.

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