Top educationists from Asia, Europe to meet today at AIOU
- October 1, 2013, 6:55 pm
- Education News
- 162 Views
ISLAMABAD, Oct 1 (Online): Top educationists from Asia and Europe will meet here on Wednesday to share their experience and expertise to promote education through distance learning system.
The conference is being arranged by Allama Iqbal Open University under the auspices of 56-member countries – Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) to deliberate open wide-ranging topics of research and educational development at higher education level.
It will be participated by about 250 educationists from home and abroad. The countries to be represented at the conference include China, Japan, UK, US, India , Malaysia , Iran, Bangladesh, Korea , Indonesia , Turkey , Australia and Canada.
Minister for Education Baligh ur Rehman will inaugurate then conference, while President Mamnoon Hussain will be chief guest at the concluding session on Thursday.
President of AAOU Prof. Dato’ Dr. Ho Sinn-Chye said in a statement on his arrival in Pakistan that it will be major event for the development of education through distance learning system, which getting popular world over.
He lauded the role of AIOU and its vice chancellor Prof. Dr. Nazir Ahmed to make the event successful. The conference will provide an opportunity to member countries to establish and promote their interaction for achieving their common goals in educational sector. The AIOU, he said has made excellent arrangements for facilitating the visiting guests.
The main theme of the conference is, â€Leveraging the Power of Open and Distance Learning for building a Divergent Asia; Today’s Solutions and Tomorrow’s vision.
The scholars and intellectuals, participating the event would present their research papers. Total about 150 papers will be presented at the conference.
Dr. Nazir Ahmed Sangi said the AIOU wish to work with the Asian countries promoting quality education not only in every nook and corner of the country but also across the Asian region and the Islamic World.
Highlighting the significance of the international conference, Dr Sangi said it would help devise an effective strategy to impart quality education to younger generation, enabling them to meet challenges of the contemporary world.
Besides, he said, it would help project soft image of Pakistan among the comity of nations. “Hosting the conference will be hallmark of the AIOU and it will further improve Pakistan ’s importance and its soft image at international level.â€
It would provide a platform to open universities and other experts to share their views and problems being faced in removing illiteracy, making education accessible to all and use of technology in promoting quality education through online and distance learning.
The VC said the conference would finalize a joint strategy for promotion of “Online learning and Distance Education†with the focus to develop tolerant and vibrant societies as per requirement of the modern needs.
AAOU was founded in 1987 by a number of open universities in the Asian region who realized the significant contribution of distance education in democratizing the provision of learning opportunities to mankind.
The participants come from Asia as well as from other parts of the world. The increasing presence of delegates from outside Asia demonstrates the prestige of the AAOU annual conference as a forum for academic exchange among international open and distance learning practitioners.
