KARACHI: Hall 6 of the Karachi Expo Centre offered an educational experience of the highest kind to all those interested as the two-day 16th Dawn Education Expo commenced here on Saturday.

There were students weighing their options as they gathered information at the various stalls.

And their options were in abundance with stalls representing universities from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Hungary, UK, USA, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Qatar, China and Pakistan of course.

As Mohammad Rafay, who recently completed his A-Levels, spoke to the representatives of an Australian university, his parents and little sister stood behind him to let him do his research. “I want him to see what the international universities have to offer and decide whether he wants to proceed abroad for higher studies or do it here,” said his father Faisal Abdul Qadir.

“Our daughter Nabeeqa still has some time to worry about such things as she is in class eight right now but she is also glad to have come,” said Lutfia Faisal, the mother.

Ms Wirasat who came alone said that her daughter was studying chartered accountancy but she would be interested in studying further after getting done with that. “So I am gathering literature for her as well as my nieces and nephews. Then they can come and speak to the representatives themselves tomorrow,” she said.

At one of the local stalls, the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants, the representatives Hifsa Saleem and Syeda Tooba Abidi said that even students of medicine and engineering were coming to them to inquire if they could also get cost management and accounting qualifications.

Omar Mansoor, a consultant for a Canadian university, said that most students coming to him cannot afford to study there. “I think only one among the ones I met today could afford to go,” he said, adding that students could study with one-fourth of the cost and no visa issues if they opened a campus in Pakistan.

At a stall offering International English Language Testing System (IELTS) assistance they were explaining to a student that after checking the level of English of a student they decide how many classes he or she should take to know good English.

Chinese, too, is a language that everyone here wishes to learn and there was film-maker and writer Zenobia Ilyas of Newports Institute of Communications and Economics telling people about their Chinese classes, which are conducting in collaboration with the Confucius Institute.

The Education Expo is also offering a series of career advice workshops for students called Career Compass in a separate area in Hall 6.

Simultaneously, there was also the International Educational Conference under way with interesting panel discussions tackling subjects such as education from the perspective of the public sector, what is happening in education in the private sector, avenues for Pakistani students, university spectrum, etc.

The Education Expo also concludes on Sunday along with the Dawn All About Lifestyles Exhibition.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2019