10th ‘National Convention on Students Quality Circles’ begins

ABBOTTABAD: The 10th “National Convention on Students Quality Circles” commenced at Modernage College with participation of delegates from abroad.

The delegates from the United Kingdom, Germany, Thailand, Norway, China, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Jordan and Albania attended the convention.

The event was inaugurated jointly by Art-ONG Jumsai, the founding director of Saithya Sai School, Thailand, Abdul Wahid Mir, the director general of EQUIP-Pakistan, Kumara Rathnayake, Assistant Director National Youth Services Council Sri Lanka, Fu Jun, the Assistant Professor of Chinese Department at NUST, Roland K. Janhke, president of Global Sustainable Excellence Concepts Germany, Ediola Pashollari, secretary general World Assembly of Youth-Malaysia, Hamza Arbsi, director of The Science League Jordan and Sumeera Wahid, the executive director of EQUIP-Pakistan.

The two-day convention, being organised by EQUIP-Pakistan, was attended by around 1000 students from more than 50 institutions of Pakistan, including a number of educationists, economists, scholars, doctors, engineers, artistes, principals and teachers on day-one.

The students are presenting case studies on key issues faced by the youth. Apart from that, the convention features competitions like debate, paper presentation, quiz, collaborative collage, radio jockeying, 60-sec filmmaking and game development.

During the convention, the speakers will specifically focus on inculcating desired characteristics in students, quality education and sustainability, initiatives for youth development, coping with health-related issues, empowering the students, efforts needed to cope with the challenges and creating awareness about the sustainable development goals of the United Nations.

The Pakistan Science Foundation has arranged a science exhibition on the occasion. A planetarium show is being conducted at Modernage Girls Campus by the Foundation. Another sideline session on ‘Solving the Mystery of Rubik’s Cube’ will also continue for two days.

Earlier, a welcome ceremony was held to welcome the delegates. In her keynote address, Secretary General World Assembly Ediola Pashollar said that the educational fraternity must make collaborative efforts to ensure sustainable development through education.

She underlined the need to empower youth to build their capacity. Ediola also talked about education policies and briefly discussed the endeavours to systematize the learning process with opportunities for youth to excel.

Another keynote session of the day-1 was conducted by Hamza Arbsi. He is the Director of The Science League, Jordan. The speaker enlightened the significance of SDGs as a tool and shared his own experience with the audience. Fu Jun from China also spoke on the occasion. Meanwhile, the students competed in game development, collaborative collage and quiz competitions as per schedule.

The international delegates appreciated the efforts of EQIP-Pakistan for mobilizing educational fraternity to nurture creativity and innovation in schools. In the concluding session, Abdul Wahid Mir, the Director General of EQUIP-Pakistan urged educationists to become part of the quality movement to nurture the creative skills of the students rather than confining them to memorizing textbooks.