Event to mark group’s 35 years in education sector
Kasuri flays successive governments for ignoring education’s development
LAHORE
The Beaconhouse School System (BSS) on Thursday arranged a press conference to announce that the institution would hold an event titled, “School of Tomorrow: Freedom to Learn Conference” at a local hotel, on November 3, to mark its 35th anniversary. Beaconhouse Group Chairperson Nasreen M Kasuri, addressing the press conference, said that 35 years ago, the Beaconhouse Group started a academy for children and it would hold the conference to commemorate its 35 years in the educational sector. Beaconhouse Group Chief Executive Kasim M Kasuri, Studies Director Roohi Haq, Administration Director Shahid Saeed Butt, Career Counseling Manager Afsa Babar and Corporate Communications Manager Syed Ali Tabraiz Bokhari also addressed the press conference.
Nasreen said that the BSS would arrange such a conference after every five years. She said that in 2005, when the group had completed its 30 years, a similar conference was arranged titled ‘Towards 2035: School of Tomorrow’. Kasuri said that the aim of holding that conference was to make a plan on what would school education look like in 2035. The BSS chairperson said that the group had also arranged a conference in 1997 with collaboration of the IFC, in which public sector teachers had also participated. She informed journalists that in 2000, the BSS had arranged a conference on the 25th anniversary of the Beaconhouse Group. “This year the conference would be based on the theme, “Freedom to Learn” in which we would discuss about how to teach the children and how to educate the teachers,” she said.
Kasuri informed journalists, “We have also invited foreign educationist to the workshop. The federal government has also been invited to take interest in such types of workshops. Education is the biggest issue of Pakistan. If we universalise our education system, all other issues would be resolved. We want to have debates, research and discussions on improving education. The media should play its role in improving education. The next decades would be ‘decades of the media’ so the media should make people realise the fact that education needs to be improved. The media talks about every issue but education has been ignored by the media.”
Bokhari said, “Beaconhouse is the largest network of schools in Pakistan. The School of Tomorrow conference would be a revolutionary conference in Pakistan’s educational sector, bringing together scholars, educationists, classroom practitioners, policy makers and experienced professionals. The conference’s mission is to discuss education and how to improve it in Pakistan.”
Kasim Kasuri informed journalists, “On the 30th anniversary of BSS in 2005, the conference was held in three cities, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Shaukat Aziz also attended the conference. In that conference we had discussed about the schools of tomorrow. On our 35th anniversary, we would carry on the same topic. In next 30 years, what would happen with schools would also be discussed in the conference.” He said that every government had ignored the education sector and steps were needed to improve the situation.
