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

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.

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

Tell us something about your childhood. What was your dream/ambition as a child?

I was born in a family of teachers and my mother and all of her sisters are teaching science subjects in different Islamabad schools and colleges. In my childhood, I never aimed to be a teacher, however my dream was to do something revolutionary in science that can be recognized and can be published/read/utilized by people.

At that time, I didn’t have acquaintance of word “research” but now I can understand that I wanted to be a researcher, however as being a very shy child, I have rarely expressed my aims explicitly.

When did you realize you wanted to be an educationist?

I was toper of my class in under-gradation and used to teach my class mates before exams and quizzes throughout for 4 years at NUST SEECS. Maximum people praised me by saying that we get our concepts clarified because you teach effectively.

Moreover I started to teach my juniors as “Teaching Assistant” in third year of my under graduation while doing my final year project that was a mix of both “research and implementation” and got positive feedback from them as well .So I finally decided to opt teaching as profession in final year of my under graduation by considering my expertise in teaching and research.

Tell us something about your work?

I am working as a senior lecturer at Bahria University since two years and the key responsibilities of a lecturer are to teach around 9 to 12 hours/week and conduct research.

There is a well known proverb that “The one who does not research has nothing to teach”. Following the lines, I spend more time in research that consequently improves my teaching content too. I have successfully published seven research papers in different benchmarked international conferences during a period of two years at Bahria University.

What do you consider your greatest professional achievement till now?

Getting Fully Funded scholarship offers from two well known universities of the world for PhD studies is my greatest professional achievement till now. I thank Allah who made me able to get the most competitive and prestigious scholarship offers Alhamdulillah.

Who has had the most influence on your life and why?

I am always influenced by successful intellectuals. They could be the scholars of sciences, arts or of religion. Success is perceived relatively, it could be money/fame/power but for me “successful” means where you have one of the above mentioned three parameters but you utilize them for helping others and can bring change in your society.

I believe “No tool is more beneficial than intelligence. No enemy is more harmful than ignorance”. The people who make use of their intellect and knowledge for humanity by facing hardships always inspires me and made me learn important lessons for practical life.

Why you chose the field of Engineering which is considered to be men’s profession in Pakistan?

I have done my Matriculation with Biology as my major’s because my parents wanted to see me as doctor but I found myself more inclined towards mathematical equations/formulas/ derivations in subjects of physics and Math.

So, I decided to choose Pre-engineering in F.S.C which consequently drew my path towards NUST for my under-graduation as Electrical Engineer with specialization in Telecommunications.

I think this is a wrong perception to consider all Engineering domains as men’s profession because the job definition varies in each domain of engineering. One could be Computer engineer, software engineer or telecom engineer and can work by sitting at office/home without visiting sites/fields. After engineering, girls can work as network analyst/software developer/ lecturer/researcher and can work side by side with men.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=36829

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Jan 3 2013. Filed under Education, Opinion. 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.