Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan has said that the dream of development and prosperity of the liberated territory cannot materialize until and unless the education system in the state is restructured in accordance with modern technology.
“It is essential to making education being imparted to the new generation job market-oriented and the curriculum compatible to the emerging trends in the world,” the president said while addressing a function in the federal metropolis to unveil a gigantic education program under the auspices of international education technology company “Coded Minds”, AJK President Office said.
He said that the use of digital technology has become inevitable to bring about a revolution in the education sector, while technologies like artificial intelligence, internet of things, robotics, blockchain and cloud computing are now in the hands of the youth. The President, however, stressed the use of these new technologies for the promotion of education and other positive purposes. He maintained that the concept of public-private partnership is very charming, but it is easy to implement it.
Various surveys related to education reveal that Azad Kashmir with 88 per cent score is far ahead of remaining areas of Pakistan in terms of enrollment, registration, gender equality and learning but our educational infrastructure is weak and fragile, he added. While appreciating the efforts of founder president of Coded Minds Omar Farooqui, the AJK president said that introduction of education technology in 14 countries by a son of Kashmir Omar Farooq and Amina Khaishgi is a matter of great pride for us, and now they want to work for the promotion of education in Azad Kashmir, and we would extend forthright cooperation to them in this regard.
Speaking on the occasion, founding President of Coded Minds and Chief Operating Officer of the company for South Asia Chapter Amina Khaishgi said that in order to turn Azad Kashmir into a valley of learning and knowledge, her company has decided to launch a program to impart education in accordance with the requirements of the 21st century with the support of modern technology.
We would introduce a system under which the students will not depend much on books and classroom lectures and they would rapidly learn through project-based activities, she said adding that 100 per cent literacy and re-enrollment of 24,000 schoolchildren in Azad Kashmir is the goal that we would achieve in next couple of years. On this, the occasion, Vice-Chancellor AJK University, Prof Dr Kalim Abbasi said that socio-economic development is not possible without education. At present more than 6,000 educational institutions besides a university or a sub-campus of the university in all district are functioning in Azad Kashmir. However, he said that imparting training to 40,000 teachers is a big challenge for us which can be met with cooperation and assistance of the organizations like Coded Minds.
