In the present age of Knowledge Economy, we are training our younger generations in a century old education system laid down by British to produce clerks. This was iterated by Member National Assembly Ahson Iqbal while addressing the opening session of 6th Biennial Conference “Vision 2020” on Saturday. “We have already lost one generation to this system and we cannot afford to lose another one,” he said, adding that a system compatible with the present age that developed values like diversity, creativity, collective competence, entrepreneurial approach and social responsibility needed to be implemented. Punjab Education Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaa Ur Rehman described the milestones achieved in uplifting the education system after devolution of the subject to provinces in 18th amendment. He expressed hope that PML-N government would achieve Millennium Development Goals in Punjab. He said 30,000 subject specialists were recruited who were under pre-service training and would join their duties from new education year starting from next month. Answering a question about sustainability of Daanish Schools, Mujtaba said legislation was done in this regard and each school had its independent Boards of Governors. He said a provincial Education Department also had curriculum development task force to update the syllabuses per changing technology. Renowned educationists including Dr Arifa Syeda, Dr Mujahid Kamran and TCS Chairperson Dr Farzana also spoke to the session. The opening session of the conference was followed by workshop sessions for the teachers by international and national education consultants. Dr Coleen Jackson, Iain Smith, Joan Forrest, Russell Yates and Dr Yasira Waqar conducted five different workshops for the academician. The concluding session of seminar was addressed by Makhdom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Najam Sethi and Sarah Gardezi.
