Today’s wars fought with power of education: Ahsan

Islamabad
Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Ahsan Iqbal has said that all the leaders of national and international academia are the core commanders and the generals of education because today the wars are fought with the power of education. They hold the key to the success and development of a country.
He stated this while addressing the 3rd Vice Chancellors’ Forum (VC Forum) on ‘Universities in the Islamic World: Facing Global Challenges’ that commenced here at the Serena Hotel, Islamabad on Monday.
The VC Forum is jointly being organised by the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Pakistan; Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Pakistan; Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Trainings, Government of Pakistan; Higher Education Commission, Pakistan; Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (IESCO), Morocco; and the Federation of Universities of the Islamic World, Morocco. Jang Media Group is the media partner of the VC Forum.
Ahsan Iqbal said that leaders of the academia are the future of today when the world is witnessing unprecedented changes. “We are in an age of paradigm shift,” he added.
The federal minister noted that technology is sweeping the landscape of education. “New model of education is a challenge for universities. The whole meaning of knowledge has been changed due to certain elements of knowledge which are telecommunications, robotics, man-made machines and biotechnology. It is difficult to say where the boundaries of a cardiologist end and where the engineer takes over from there because in today’s world operations are not necessarily done with hands. We need to indulge in new fusion process to find new answers for our society. We need to equip ourselves with the knowledge where brain power excels muscle power. Now, education has to move beyond its traditional role. This can be achieved with the outreach of communication between various academic organizations. Globalization has created various opportunities and digital age has revolutionized the academia and corporate sector. A bank is relied 50% on finances and 50% on ICT platform. The universities will have to encourage innovation and creativity, besides collaboration among themselves,” he added.
The federal minister said that creativity is the only function of one’s ability to ask question, adding that if we will not encourage query, we can never be go through the process of creativity. “It is a pity that Muslims have given up ‘Tafaqqur’ and ‘Tadabbur.’ The process of creativity is shunned in our society but now we have to see that from ‘knowing’ to ‘doing’ is the only process that can take us on the path of success. Implement new ideas which will jumpstart the process of creativity. Today the Muslim countries have hard time figuring out who will get the Nobel Prize in science and technology. We need to put Islamic countries on the roadmap of knowledge and creativity,” he said.
Speaking on occasion, Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Prof Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed gave an overview of VC Forum. Welcoming the heads of the Islamic universities, the HEC chairman stressed upon providing quality education to the youth. “The history of Muslims is very rich, as the Muslims scientists and educationist have earned great name in every field. The idea of holding the VC Forum was to energize the heads of academic institutions so that how we could come out of isolation and help in capacity building of one another,” he said.
Prof Dr. Mukhtar said that our people have great potential if they are provided with proper environment. “If any nation wants to progress it has to invest in education sector. The government is investing in education sector and has launched a laptop scheme and other schemes. It is through education that we can tackle the challenge of terrorism we are facing presently. Currently we have 163 public private universities in Pakistan. Access rate to higher education has increased tremendously in Pakistan which is 8.3% due to the help of USA, Britain, Germany, Japan, China etc but there is a need to upgrade the huge potential we have in the country. Islamic Ummah constitutes the 24% of the total population of the world. We can come out of our bad patch only through education and advocacy. Pakistan can play a role in strengthening the various universities and let’s not forget each other. Let us identify our global challenges and help each other in strengthening each other through capacity building,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) Rector Dr. S.M Junaid Zaidi presented vote of thanks to participants of the VC Forum. He also appreciated the organizers of the VC Forum in making the event a success.
CIIT rector said that the 3rd VC Forum is held to take up the challenges being faced by the academia of the Islamic community. These challenges are from within our own selves which can only be addressed by our own efforts and investment in education.
Assistant Secretary General OIC, Muhammad Naeem Khan and Deputy Director General ISESCO Dr. Amina also spoke on the occasion.
The VC Forum is the congregation of the Vice Chancellors/ Rectors/ Presidents of the universities /higher education institutions of the Islamic world.
Around 180 heads of universities from Muslims countries are participating in the 3rd Vice Chancellors’ Forum.
The Muslim countries whose universities heads are attending the VC Forum include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Algeria Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Libya, Malaysia, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Tunisie, Turkey, Uganda, Yemen, Gambia, Jordan, and other Muslim universities.
Objective of the VC Forum is to provide a platform to the university leaders in the Islamic world in forging linkages for initiating joint academic programs; promoting research; pooling resources; offering scholarships; promoting exchange of students; establishing centers of excellence; and so forth.
Exhibition is one of the important features of the VC Forum. It provided an excellent opportunity to universities/ higher education institutions to showcase their respective areas of strength. A lot of students were seen visiting the stalls of the universities and gathering information about the subjects they were offering.
It may be noted that this is 3rd VC Forum being held in the federal capital as earlier two VC Forums were held one each in June 2012 and September 2013 in Islamabad. Both events were well received with overwhelming participation by the vice chancellors/ rectors/ presidents of the universities in the Islamic world.