Festival of ideas kicks off

LAHORE

An international festival of ideas “A World of Tomorrow: Seeking Inspiration and Equilibrium in a New Age” featuring thinkers and speakers from different parts of the world opened here on Friday.

The three-day festival, which is a Beaconhouse School of Tomorrow (SOT) event, offers over 60 sessions on variety of topics featuring 160-plus speakers from Pakistan, United States, UK, France, Malaysia, Russia, Australia, Nepal and Philippines.

Five jam-packed panel discussions “Setting Directions for A World of Tomorrow”, “The Future of Schooling”, “How Grades Affect Learning”, “Rethinking Educational Leadership in A New Age”, and “STEM: Teaching it Well (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) were held on the first day besides interactive science and arts exhibition and an interesting workshop “Build Your Own Bot” by a robotics expert, Sibel Ahmad Mufti.  

Punjab Governor Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana was the chief guest while Chairperson Beaconhouse Mrs Nasreen Mahmud Kasuri, chief executive of Beaconhouse School System Kasim Kasuri and former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri and people from different walks of life attended the opening ceremony. 

In her welcome address, Mrs Nasreen Kasuri said Beaconhouse had adopted 50 public sector schools in Punjab to assist the government in raising the standard of education in the province. She expressed her vision to extend this initiative to other provinces of Pakistan. 

Governor Rafique Rajwana lauded the efforts and emphasised the importance of taking a proactive role in the improvement of education. CEO of a bank Atif Bajwa also spoke on the occasion. 

The morning’s panel discussion was aimed at setting directions for the event. Panellists included renowned legal activist Kimberley Motley, Chairman PITB Umar Saif, artist Rashid Rana, Beaconhouse Director Education Dr Lawrence Burke. The session was moderated by Kasim Kasuri. The opening day also featured three presentations “Education for the Future: Low Technology High Humanity Schools” by Dr Lawrence Burke, “The Power of Project-Based Learning” by Ayesha Kasuri and "Metacognition as the Future for Learning" by Lee Davis.  

Hundreds of people thronged the festival venue and explored the exhibition hall and attended discussions and presentations.  

While almost all sessions attracted huge crowds, the session “How Grades Affect Learning” moderated by Clive Barnes in particular attracted a large number of students and parents. 

As the discussion went along the speakers seemed to reach a consensus that it was creativity within a child that needed to be tapped rather than pushing him or her to be a high achiever. There was also concern over increasing trend of tuition even among the students following foreign qualifications like O and A levels.   

LUMS Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Sohail H Naqvi said grading and learning were not opposite to each other and neither there was any dichotomy but added what the world cherished was the creativity. 

Jude Heaton was of the view good grade did not work as a passport to success. Hassan Khattak said it was important to nurture best out of a child and not just grades. Scheherazade Ahmad summing up the discussion said “We need a curriculum for life.” 

Speaking at one of the panel discussions, Dr Umar Saif underlined three core values for young learners, including curiosity, humility and creativity.

He also spoke on sophisticated and evolving role of technology.  Discussions, interactive exhibitions and performances will continue as part of “A World of Tomorrow” over the next two days and will be open to the public.