Up to 25 Pakistani organisations and education institutes are among 1,600 aspirants across the world applying for the prestigious WISE Award, 2013, which promotes innovation in access to education, according to the Qatar Foundation, the organiser of the WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) Award.
At an informative seminar held in Islamabad regarding the awards 2013 on Wednesday, educationists, teacher’s trainers, teachers and students learnt that the awards provided them an opportunity to showcase their endeavors in the upcoming WISE Summit 2013 in Doha.
Speakers said the WISE Award had been the most prestigious global title in the field of education initiated by the Qatar Foundation since 2009 under the patronage of the Qatar’s First Woman Shiekha Moza bint Nasser.
Looking forward to appreciate and enhance innovation in educational policies, WISE Awards provide a platform to showcase some of the most magnanimous and courageous feats in the education sector and reward such persons or organizations so that more could be done globally to overcome the stalemate of lack of innovation in education around the world, says a press release issued by the seminar organizers. .
Pakistan has been a part of the WISE Awards before. A year after its inception in 2009, Mushtaq Chappra from The Citizens Foundation received the WISE Award in 2010 and $ 20,000. In 2012, innovational education projects from Cambodia, Denmark, USA, India, Chile and Bangladesh were rewarded with the WISE Awards and $20,000 each. Over a span of three years groundbreaking and successful projects have come from many countries including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, India, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the USA.
These awards are not only a measure of appreciation for such great feats but also a platform to make one’s presence in the Global arena known as the applicants are connected to the WISE community: a network comprising of 9000 experts and specialists from 152 countries. In 2013, six projects will be awarded the WISE Award for innovation.
Other notable programs of WISE include the WISE Prize, WISE Education Leadership Program, WISE publications, WISE Haiti Task Force, Learning World, WISE Community Platform.
The WISE Summit, 2013, shall be held in Qatar, Doha through October 29-31. A three day event with more than 100 countries and over 1000 global educational stakeholders participating in around 60 sessions over a pre-designated theme which would be disclosed in the near future.
