Interview: Senior Lecturer Fareeha Azmat sees a very bright future of Pakistan (Part Two)

It seems impossible to imagine a society without teachers. Educators are often considered to be the moral keepers of nations and societies, those who give direction, hope, those who explain and unravel issues which others fail to comprehend.

Educator Fareeha Azmat sees a very bright future of Pakistan. In her view, bringing synchronization in education from bottom to top in all private and government institutions will improve education standard in the country.

She is a senior lecturer at Bahria University, Islamabad and has had two international awards at her credit including Best Research Project Award and Best Student Award at University of Leicester that are considered equivalent to Pakistan’s Gold Medals. She has also published seven research papers in international journals.

Considering her achievement, University of Warwick (UK) and Macquarie University of Australia have offered her fully-funded scholarships for PhD in Engineering.

She has spoken to Newspakistan.pk and her words offer a better understanding of educational problems in the country. Here is the second part of her detailed interview.

What do you think about the curriculum in universities?

The positive thing about university curriculums is its synchronization in all universities that is inspected by Higher Education Commission (HEC) on regular basis e.g. the Electrical Engineering (EE) Curriculum at NUST is similar Bahria EE and MAJU EE curriculum.

I recommend decreasing theoretical aspects in curriculum by bringing more practical examples during lectures by following state of art technology enhancements.

What do you think are the main differences between education systems in Pakistani universities and other countries?

There are many differences and I think it is not justified to compare Pakistani universities with universities of other countries because maturity in system comes with time. There are majority universities in the developed countries which are 60 to 70 years old while Pakistan itself is of 65 years, so how can we expect the same education level in Pakistan?

One of the biggest differences is their research in each domain. They innovate new ideas, implement them and are using for giving benefit to their nation and world too. However our nation has now started to understand the meaning and advantage of doing “research”.

How do you think technology impacts education in the present scenario?

Technology has pros/cons but  I think one of the biggest advantage of technology is  globalization and that is affecting education 24/7.Online notes, lectures and books are available everywhere that helps students to get the required knowledge at any time. Moreover distant learning education became possible only due to technology advancement where one can get degree from abroad while residing in Pakistan.

What qualities do you think make a good teacher?’

A good teacher is the one who has grip on his/her subject with excellent communication skills that can be used for effective delivery of lectures. Moreover he/she should be able to take all students in the class on the same pace and is able to make them learn some important lessons for practical life.

What’s your perception on student politics in education institutions?

Student politics should be discouraged because maximum students are dragged to wrong paths by student political parties and they forget the eternal goal for coming to university/college.

What are your opinions about current educational issues in Pakistan?

In my opinion, the lack of uniformity in the curriculum, marking schemes and methods of assessment in government Urdu and English medium schools, model colleges and private schools is the main educational issue.

This issue arises when we (university lecturers) follows the same curriculum in our class and come up with conclusion that “F.S.C students are good in math but have poor presentation skills” and its other way for O/A level students. Moreover the compatibility between students belonging to different school systems is less as they got exposure on varying levels.

So I strongly recommend bringing synchronization in education from 1^st to 12^th grade in all private and government schools.

What do you think about future of Pakistan?

I visualize a very bright future of Pakistan in education. Our universities are striving hard and producing high caliber intellectuals but our government should take steps for giving incentives to these intellectuals so that they stay in Pakistan and serve their homeland.

Majority of high caliber students are settled abroad because of lack of opportunities and jobs in Pakistan so it’s the right time to utilize our own youth for improving conditions of Pakistan by providing them favorable conditions.

Lastly, do you have any advice for students?

Yes I want to give all students one advice that I really liked and acted upon said by Brain Tracy: “All successful people are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.”

So one should set goals and strive day and night to achieve these goals. The visualization of goals can be changed to reality by continuous hard work

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=36831

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jan 3 2013. Filed under Education, Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.