Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Tuesday while stressing on quality of education said that only increase in budget could not help enhance education standard. He stated this while addressing at the conclusion of two-day international conference entitled "Professional Development in Higher Education: Trends and Practices, Prospects and Innovations", jointly organized by Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Fatima Jinnah Women University (FJWU), Rawalpindi.
Dr Arshad Ali, Executive Director HEC, Shaheen Khan, Adviser Learning Innovation, HEC, Fida Hussain, Director General LI, HEC, and a large number of vice chancellors, faculty members and national and foreign researchers also graced the occasion. Mushahid Hussain Sayed said that voice would be raised in the Parliament for the betterment of students, teachers and education. Every civilized society gives due esteem to teachers, as teachers deserve high honor and dignity being role models for their students, he added.
"I compliment HEC for taking this very positive initiative by organizing a conference on professional development in higher education," he stated, adding that HEC has been the vanguard of higher education since 2002 and has brought about a revolution in the higher education sector. He said learning is a continuous process and professional development of faculty is beneficial not only for teachers but also for students. He underlined that provision of education needs to be ensured along with availability of equal opportunities to all men and women.
Mushahid Hussain said that the vacant posts of Pakistan chairs, specified for Pakistani academics to serve the country from abroad, are being filled with the cooperation of HEC after a long wait for seven years. He further said that seven out of 14 candidates to fill the positions are females.
"Pakistan Chairs are very important means to project Pakistan's soft image abroad," he maintained. The biggest battle, he observed, is the battle of ideas, and it is academia where ideas come from. So, he stressed, academia should come forward to serving the country amidst the prevailing information warfare.
Dr Arshad Ali said professional development in higher education is the key component that ensures quality of education. "The role of a teacher is significant in today's world where an average student has easy access to knowledge through internet," he said, adding that a teacher enables students through arguments and analyses to benefit from the right information.
He stressed the need for promoting student-centric learning, as students come from different backgrounds as well as different competencies. He said the HEC is committed to professional development of teachers, as it follows the policy of appropriately equipping teachers to enable them to enhance quality and groom leadership for future.
The executive director revealed that HEC LI Division trains 500 teachers annually under its four faculty development programmes. He assured that the recommendations of conference will be examined for materialization. Fida Hussain shed light on the purpose of the conference and presented the recommendations made during its four sessions.
The recommendations, he said, include finalization of roadmap regarding faculty development, designing of faculty development programmes, revision of pedagogy, learning from professional development theories, establishment of faculty development centers, making policy level changes, and driving professional development framework on the basis of research. During the conference, four sessions were held which covered a number of topics including a repertoire for learning in outcome based education paradigm; improving students' learning in distance education by learning style based teaching; courageous fellowship in higher education commission; pedagogical skill development in teachers' preparation; faculty development at tertiary level; and from banking model to critical pedagogy: challenges and constraints in university classrooms.
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