Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor, Barrister Masood Kausar has said education is a major tool of nation building, develop the country and ensure better future. "Education means educating youth in all respects and it is the universities, where the national challenges need to be discussed and feed back provided to the respective institutions to seek solutions of that", he added.
Addressing as the chief guest at the Convocation - 2011 of CECOS University of IT & Emerging Sciences; an institution working in the private sector on Tuesday, the Governor said, "education means; education which will be incomplete without ensuring provision of proper co-curricular activities at the campuses to the students". The ceremony was also addressed by the provincial minister for Sports & Youth Affairs, Syed Aqil shah and the President of the University, Engr. Tanvir Javed.
In all about 200 graduates, 24 got gold medals for achieving distinctive positions in various disciplines of management and computer Science as well civil and electrical engineering.
Emphasising the importance for quality education, the Governor said, the government realises the role of higher education for socio-economic development and with the devolution of powers to the provinces their resources base are also expected to be enhanced and ultimately would lead to enormous expansion of education particular the technical education.
The role of private sector, he said, is also of vital importance in meeting the growing demand of the people for education particularly in the backward areas. The FATA, he said, because of shockingly low literacy rate deserves to be provided adequate educational facilities. The security situation in the area, he said, is far better now and there is a need to promote quality education; balanced development of the society and the individuals.
The educational institutions, he said, should also realise that education, especially the technical education is much more than diplomas and degrees and one have to practically prove his worth. In fact, he said, youth are the double edge sword and if they are properly educated and trained, they may prove an asset otherwise they may become dangerous for the society.
Pointing towards the graduates, the Governor said, we have great expectations from our coming generations who should also make best use of the time and the available educational facilities. "There is a flood of knowledge, available over the internet, which enables them to be in a far better position to seek knowledge as compared to the past when students used to rely upon only text books and fictions.
The minister for Sports & Youth Affairs, Syed Aqil shah while speaking on the occasion highlighted the various steps to promote sports facilities and encourage youth to contribute significantly in the nation building process. A mammoth programme, he said, is in the offing to promote technical education in various spheres of life. Besides, he said, ten youth hostels have been planned, which will be established in different parts of the province.
Earlier, Engr. Tanvir Javed President of the University welcoming the Governor and the guests highlighted various stages of development of the CECOS education system and said that they took start in 1984 and uptill now 17000 graduates have passed out.
Presently, he added, their enrolment stands 3000 with 350 faculty members including twelve are having Ph.D education in the field of Engineering. The University, he said, has provided Rs 50 million as financial assistance to its students. The university, he further said, is pioneer in introducing BBA and MBA degree programmes and once again it is the only institution offering Architecture and Town Planning study programmes.
Later on, the Governor gave away degrees and medals to the graduates, Farhan Majeed, Neelum Rasheed, Sumaila Shafique, Syed Adil Shah, Aisha Shahid, Anam Asghar, Guljana Ashfaq, Naila Ibrahim, Kashif Shahzad, Zainab Saleem, Raeesa Waqar, Alina Masood, Waqar Azam, Sair Rasheed, Shafaq Waheed, Omer Ahmed Qureshi, Adnan Alam, Zarjan Ali Raza, Muhammad Faisal, Saqib Suleman, Samiullah Jan, Muhammad Waqas and Mamoon Riaz received gold medals for achieving distinctive positions in their respective disciplines. The ceremony was largely attended by renowned educationists, elites of the city and parents of the students.