ABBOTTABAD: A German education expert has said that a syllabus is being compiled under a Unesco initiative for students to help them face the bigger challenges in coming 15 years.

Roland K Jahnke, chairman of the International Academy for Quality (IAQ), Germany, said that quality was the key to sustainable development and that education should be for life and not for examinations.

He was addressing the concluding session of a two-day National Convention of Student Quality Circle organised by EQUIP (Empowerment Through Quality Education, Innovation and Productivity) Pakistan, at Modernage School here the other day.

Teams of over 40 schools from across the country took part in the case study presentation, story forming competition, debate, paper presentation and quiz competition along with at least 50 renowned personalities from academia.

Among speakers were Ariyasiri Kalupahana, Assistant Director, Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka, Brig-Gen M Mofizur Rehman from Bangladesh, Hassan Arif from Packages Lahore and Dr Ghulam Qasim Marwat from EQUIP.

Roland K Jahnke said that learning today for sustainable future was the basic motto of IAQ for which he was traveling all over the world following the Unesco World Conference held in Japan in 2014 with the aim to generate future campaigns of the new Global Action Programme.

The German education expert, who is closely associated with the education boards and councils of UK, US and different European countries, gave new directions to the participants in the field of education for sustainable development.

He said that their target areas were not only children or school-going students but also the higher education with the deep involvement of faculty.

Mr Jahnke said: “We are also changing the methodology to teach the students in the light of Unesco programme.”

Other speakers said that Pakistan could benefit from the Sri Lankan education system and also from other neighbouring countries where everyone was trained and groomed to take part in the national affairs.

Gifts and souvenirs were distributed to the successful teams and students of different schools and colleges.

Published in Dawn, November 24th , 2014