MUZAFFARABAD-AJK President Sardar Masood Khan has said that Azad Kashmir’s universities, colleges and schools are focusing on the quality of education after having achieved the targets on the quantity.
He was addressing a seminar titled “Promotion of Student Success: Connect, Inspire, Transform” organised here by the Oxford University Press, which was attended by more than 150 educationists and opinion leaders from all over Pakistan and AJK besides ten AJK schools took part in the seminar.
The AJK president thanked Ameena Saiyid, Chairperson and Managing Director of Oxford University Press, for bringing Azad Kashmir into the educational mainstream and bringing top educationists to Muzaffarabad.
He claimed that the state has emerged as the most literate region. “This is a matter of pride for us that, despite severe resource constraints, Azad Kashmir has outcompeted all other regions in educational score, enrolment, learning, retention, and gender scores”, he pointed out. Masood Khan emphasized that after having achieved an impressive literacy rate of more than 85 percent, highest in Pakistan, now Azad Kashmir was refining the quality of education so that graduates get appropriate jobs in the emerging market.
He said that the state’s economy is expanding and its educational institutions are investing in the areas of critical thinking, innovative approaches and modern educational technologies. “This would be possible only through learning and replication of good teaching practices”, he said, adding that these are the very themes that are being discussed by the OUP seminar participants.
Sardar Masood Khan underlined that there is a need to enhance an interface and compatibility between the market and academic institutions so that qualified professionals were prepared for emerging jobs and businesses.
He vowed that in coming years Azad Kashmir will not only become self-sufficient and indeed prosperous but would contribute to the economy of Pakistan by using its surplus capacity. He invited the participants of the seminar to project Azad Kashmir as a land of opportunity.