Islamabad: Former federal minister for science and technology Dr. Atta-ur Rehman Friday underlined the dire need of adopting proper vision and strategy at the relevant levels for achieving excellence in the educational field.
Addressing the 3rd international conference on Research and Practices in Education, organised here by the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), he called for following development-model of China or Singapore to achieve real progress in the socio-economic sector.
The two-day conference presided over by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Shahid Siddiqui was being attended by the eminent educationists from home and abroad. The key-note speaker at the inaugural session was Dr. Chris Rasmussen, an eminent scholar from USA.
The event was part of the research-based academic activities, being organised by the university on regular basis.
Dr. shahid Siddiqui in his welcome address briefed the participants about the university’s achievements, promoting research-based culture. He spoke about the important role of teaching community for ensuring quality education. He asserted the research must be linked with the community’s overall well-being.
Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman lauded AIOU’s repaid academic progress in the recent years, stating the university under the leadership of Dr. Siddiqui showed excellent performance through new ideas and activities. He hoped that it would keep it up to meet future educational challenges.
Giving a wake-up call for coming out from the darkness of ignorance, Dr. Atta-ur Rehman further said only knowledge-based society could push the country towards true development. Stating that students, children are the real asset of the country, he said they must be facilitated in capitalising their potential and energies.
Citing the huge investment made on education, during the tenure of his chairmanship of Higher Education Commission (HEC), he said it paved the way of producing thousands of PhDs every year. It was the turning period in the educational sector, particularly in the field of science and technology he added.
During his thought-provoking talks, he said they must focus on ability to innovate and relate it to the country’s progress. There should be an enabling environment for socio-economic development.
In his key-note address, Dr. Chris Rasmussen spoke about importance of collaborative partnership at the international level. He elaborated as how the collaboration could be made productive and result-oriented.
Dr. Shahid Siddiqui further said there is need to re-visit the idea of development through holistic approach. The Educational institutions need to produce graduates who could serve the society, through critical thinking and creative approach. He was of the view that real change in the life of an individual and the society could only be brought about through innovation and creativity.
The major purpose of the conference was to provide researchers and practitioners a platform to present their recent work, and to interact with fellows in a global community of practice.
The conference being planned by the Faculty of Education will cover the extensive-ranging subjects concerning to the formal, non-formal as well as special education from secondary to higher education level.
Those who also addressed the event included Dean Education Dr. Nasir Mahmood who highlighted the objectives of the conference, stating it will initiate an analytical and critical discourse among the researchers and scholars of the field that may lead to social change.
It will also provide opportunity to scholars across the globe for dissemination of their research work for addressing the social phenomenon, besides highlighting the innovative methods and modes of research around the world.
