KARACHI, May 21: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has called for finding ways by which education helps reducing inequality and the digital divide, besides increasing core knowledge of students and boosts their learning skills. We need an educational system that prepares citizens for the future challenges while preserving and enhancing our values; that ensures better understanding and appreciation of values; and that helps encouraging a variety of opinions, he stressed.
The prime minister was speaking as chief guest at the ninth convocation of the Hamdard University on its campus, Madinatul Hikmat, on Saturday.
He was accompanied by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan and Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim.
As many as 1,525 degrees and diplomas, including 9 PhD and MPhil degrees, were conferred on graduates of different faculties, while 43 gold medals were awarded to outstanding students during the convocation which, among others, was attended by dignitaries from different walks of life and parents of the outgoing students.
Congratulating the graduates, the prime minister pointed out to them that they had reached the end of certain phase in their education, but now would be facing personal and professional challenges in the future.
The prime minister said that it would be the educational quality of the workforce which would determine the economic performance in the world.
“Certainly, they need a combination of academic orientation and technical skills, freedom to express their opinions within the parameters of our values and skills to market themselves in the domestic and international avenues”, the prime minister emphasized.
The prime minister noted that the nations having large pools of human resource with technical skills, excellence in market based technologies and well integrated golden triangle of academic, industry and research and development institutions would be able to dictate their terms in the evolving globalize world.
He said that the government was focussing on four major areas of education: from macro policy to specialized learning, research and development, and use of information and communication technology.
Mr Aziz, in his speech praised many of the initiatives that the Hamdard University had made and announced a grant of Rs10 million to contribute towards the efforts of the university to venture into new areas. He also eulogized the services of the founder of Hamdard University, late Hakim Mohammad Said.
Earlier, the Chancellor of the University, Senator S.M. Zafar, said that the Hamdard University was planning to start a faculty of Robotic and Artificial Intelligence, which could become a success story with great advantage to the country if the university received generous support and encouragement from the government.
The Vice-Chancellor, Dr M Iqbal Qureshi informed the audience that the HU was in contact with a university of Malaysia to start a joint programme in Multimedia Technologies.
HEC Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman also spoke at the convocation and highlighted the activities of the commission.
The president of Hamdard Foundation Pakistan, Sadia Rashid, presented the words of thanks, while a group of students from the Hamdard School offered Dua-i-Said.
Degrees were conferred to students belonging to about 20 programmes, including MBBS, BDS, Eastern Medicine, Computer Science, and Business Administration. Those, who, in addition to degrees and medals, were awarded Hakim Mohammad Said Gold Medal for coming out as the best graduates in each faculty of the university by the prime minister were, Sumaira William, Aisha Kousar, Gul Afshan, Hameeda, Fatima Khurshid and Munawer Awan.
Those who were conferred PhD degrees were: Education-Jawaid Ahmed Siddiqui and Zaira Wahab; Humanities and Social Sciences-Abdullah Khan, Syed Javed Rizvi, Masroor Ahmed Zai and Tabassum Sultana; Eastern Medicine-Prof Hakim Afzal Ahmad and Hakim Shahabuddin.
A graduate, Halima Nazar was presented Master of Philosophy degree in the faculty of Easter Medicine.
KARACHI, May 21: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has called for finding ways by which education helps reducing inequality and the digital divide, besides increasing core knowledge of students and boosts their learning skills. We need an educational system that prepares citizens for the future challenges while preserving and enhancing our values; that ensures better understanding and appreciation of values; and that helps encouraging a variety of opinions, he stressed.
