Curriculum, classrooms & citizens transform societies: Faisal Mushtaq

Islamabad

Chaudhry Faisal Mushtaq, TI, Founder & CEO The Millennium University College and Millennium Roots Schools, narrating his tales of passion in scaling the Millennium Roots Schools to where it is today, said the Millennium University College and Millennium Schools is born out of my blazing passion for reformation of urban classroom through transnational quality learning and globally accredited undergraduate and post-graduate education programmes.

In an interview with ‘The News’in connection with 'Jang Group' Educational Expo, he said we aim to help sponsor change across our teaching and learning practices, thus bridging the excellence and achievement divide. Faisal Mushtaq further added, for nearly 30 years we have sponsored educational change, opportunity, achievement, excellence and excitement across schools, communities, towns, cities through our student centered education system. As Millennium Schools and Millennium University College today is beyond education and schooling with 15,000 plus students and 45 purposes iconic flagship state-of-the-art environmental friendly and sustainable Campuses nationwide; it is changing the national education paradigm and landscape through its award winning curriculum, beyond the classroom teaching and learning initiatives, teacher training programmes, qualifications, results, achievements, thus promoting social change and community re-engineering.

Faisal Mushtaq said the Three C's are denominator for social change in Pakistan today; far more powerful than any political or economic revolution; the three Cs are ‘Curriculum, Classrooms and Citizens'. Today, Pakistan needs more 'pupils and pencils' than 'tanks and technology', classrooms in civilized nations transform a society provided they are fuelled with quality national curriculum thus endorsed and owned by the citizens of the society; to me the real Pakistan is the literate school-going Pakistan with values and ethos close to peace, tolerance, freedom, dignity, progress and prosperity.

He said to help raise social awareness and to take Pakistan out of the aura of darkness and illiteracy, I today have built a vision and network for a GloCAL school; means 'Global in perspective' and 'local and access'. I am sure one day The Oxford Dictionary shall include my authored word 'GloCAL' in their global vocabulary; just like they added 'selfie', laughs Faisal Mushtaq.

During my career in education and as a custodian of classrooms, I take pride in many historic achievements but amongst all such achievements, the most rewarding for me, community, my team, Pakistan and the children include the historic introduction and initiative by myself to introduce Chinese Language across Millennium Roots Schools, where nearly 6,000 students are learning Mandarin in Millennium Roots Schools in Islamabad, Millennium Schools as Asia's first Information Community Technology ICT Digital Literacy Curriculum that I developed in partnership with Intel Education which created a digital revolution across Pakistan as almost 25,000 students across country are benefitting from this unique skills for success programme, promoting the concept of student counselling and mentoring services across schools, my students entering Ivy League Universities including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, MIT and Oxford and Cambridge Universities each year on a regular basis on full or part merit portfolio based scholarships, co-authoring the Roots National school curriculum and our very own montessori, primary and lower secondary qualifications with global endorsements, and the award winning Roots National Institute of teacher training & Education RNITTE, which has trained more than 12000 teachers across Public and Private sector to date.

He further said, "young people and children motivate and inspire my soul that helps me enjoy rather love scaling literacy, development, educational change, opportunity, empowerment, excellence and excitement across communities, towns, and cities across Pakistan".

Responding to a query Faisal Mushtaq said: "I regularly represent and mostly invited to represent Pakistan on International Conferences like World Economic Forum Summer-Davos in China and Asia NGO Innovation Summit in South Korea, an active member of the Planning Commission and UNDP Youth, education and community engagement team. A member of Pak-China Think tank and member of The Indus Entrepreneurship Islamabad and All World Network Pakistan 100 winner and Arabia 500 winner. He is also a honorary member of University of Cambridge International Examinations Advisory Council, he contributes regularly as a national speaker on school reforms, educational development, curriculum enrichment, entrepreneurship, role of career counselling for youth, school improvement, teacher, student and parental relationship management, where he has had the honor to win 9 most deserving awards in the categories of 'Best Educationist of the Year 2014 Award', 'Best Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2011 & 2012' by the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Young CEO Excellence Award' and 'Education Industry Excellence Award' by the Global Media Links GML Pakistan. The prestigious 'Accomplished Leader Award' by ABI, USA, 'Appreciation and Leadership Award' by Intel Education Pakistan, 'Leadership Excellence Award' by KFC Pakistan, 'Achievement Excellence Award 2009' by the Rawalpindi Chambers of Commerce & Industry RCCI, Pakistan, 'The Indus Entrepreneurship Award' by the Indus Entrepreneurs TIE, Pakistan Chapter, 'Brand of the Year Award 2010' by the Brands Foundation, Pakistan, 'Environmental Excellence Awards 2010' by the Ministry of Environment. Under his leadership Millennium Schools has also won the UNESCO Peace Pillar award. A firm believer of global harmony and celebrating cultural diversity, he launched the practice of celebrating all UN action days across all campuses of Millennium Schools. Upon his instigation Millennium Roots is the only school in Pakistan with a community service, active global citizenship and social entrepreneurship curriculum from grade 1 to 7. Robotics, ICT and Green School curriculums make our educational qualifications unique; both in content, teaching and delivery.

As the Best young Entrepreneurship of the Country, he is a role model to pupils for outstanding dedication and commitment to excellence in Education. His phenomenal efforts and personal passion is contagious, and have been acknowledged by the President and Prime Minister Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Also he has been recognized by the President and Premier of Peoples republic of China for his services in support of Chinese language promotion.

Proudly smiling he adds the recent initiate of TMUC our goal is for every student to graduate with international and transformative multicultural and global competencies, whether acquired at home or abroad. In partnership with colleagues in colleges and educational providers across the globe, TMUC is a unique hub of research, service learning, internship and community projects that infuse experiential and intercultural learning and personally enriching experiences into our students' portfolios. By providing an eclectic portfolio of transnational higher education qualifications, TMUC would assist Roots Millennium School's mission and commitment to developing the right set of skills, attitudes, knowledge and values within graduating Millennials so that they can confidently meet the global challenges of the 21st century. We offer programmes, qualifications that are globally accepted because of the high academic quality, academic vigour, depth and employability in lesser time. We have been offering the University of London International Programs, Higher National Diplomas Fashion and Business, professional qualifications such as ACCA, CIMA and various other certifications, bringing a lot of transnational education home. Giving the youth of Pakistan an opportunity to compete with the global economy and providing value added education that open doors for them globally.

Responding to a question of university acceptances, he said our dreams turn into reality when this year 70% of Millennial students applied internationally of which 60% applied to the United States receiving acceptances from Cambridge, all the top IVY's, UCLA, John Hopkins, University of Chicago, UT Austin, Wellesley, Williams, Amherst, Rice, New York University, University of British Columbia, University of Waterloo, Lake Forest College, Babson College, Hampshire College, Sara Lawrance, College, Kenyon College, and many more. His students from Millennium campus break all world records and score top positions in the world in all National and International Examinations — attain perfect scores in SAT-II 2400/2400, receive admission offers in the top national & international universities with full scholarship in the disciplines of physics, social sciences, arts, technology and engineering programs at world top universities including MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Amherst, LSE, UCL, Kings College, Warwick, Agha Khan University, GIK, NUST, LUMS, IBA, UET and many more. As a Dean, Chief Executive, Career Counsellor and Student University Applications Sponsor, he works very closely with each student and takes pride and honour to announce that his students across Pakistan have won scholarships in access of $100 million, which is testament to our commitment to their career choices and university application support.

Further Mr. Faisal said, "At one and the only Millennium Schools we give you every opportunity to stretch yourself intellectually and socially. We have a superb learning environment and beyond the classroom learning activities focusing on each child's individual needs and portfolio development this scaling opportunities for a successful University application. The Millennium environment provides a perfect balance of learning and getting away from it when you need to. We are confident that Millennium experience is special and very fulfilling.