Seminar speakers call for education reforms

SWABI: Speakers at a seminar here on Sunday said the government should introduce result-oriented reforms in the education sector so that the country could catch up with the rapidly changing technological and scientific world.

They were speaking at the seminar titled “Redefining Education in the 21st Century” at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology.

The GIK Institute rector, pro-rectors, deans, directors, faculty members and students belonging to different disciplines of engineering and management sciences participated in the seminar.

Prof Dr Shahid Siddiqui, former vice-chancellor of Allama Iqbal Open Un versity Islamabad, was the key speaker on the occasion.

The participants said successive governments had repeatedly claimed that reforms in the education sector were among the top priorities but the ground realities were totally different, therefore Pakistan had lagged behind in the field of education.

Prof Siddiqui, who has authored nine books on the education system in Pakistan, said that access to contemporary education should be top priority of the government, adding that practical steps should be taken to survive in the changing world.

“There is no alternative to education. It is the only panacea for all our ills but only lip-service to knowledge would not work. Creating opportunities for the younger generation and making the field attractive for them would be a great step,” he said.

Prof Siddiqui, who is presently dean faculty of social sciences at Lahore School of Economics,

said that we could create a better world and conducive environment only through quality education, focusing on major advances in science and technology.

He said in the past the education policies failed because tall claims were made, adding that the country lacked political will, financial support, consistency and accountability, and a perfect mentoring mechanism.

“If we want to catch-up with the rapidly changing technological world we have to overcome these loopholes,” he said.

Speaking on occasion, Rector Fazal Ahmad Khalid said that GIK Institute

provided an excellent environment to its students and encouraged them

to use the modern laboratories and other facilities to produce indigenous technology while reducing dependency on developed nations.