President Dr Arif Alvi has urged all stakeholders to ensure that every school-going child is enrolled in a school and students with a Faculty of Science certificate are accepted to higher learning education institutions. Speaking during the convocation of the Virtual University of Pakistan (VU), he noted that the country's primary enrolment rate is just 68%, as opposed to the over 98% of other regional nations, and that enrolment in higher education is only 9%, as opposed to the 60% of other regional countries. He said that this is insufficient to meet the need for high-quality human resources necessary for the country to experience faster socio-economic progress.

The president stated that as education is crucial for the prosperity of the nation, all children of school-age should be accepted to schools and no child should be left behind. The nation as a whole should be alarmed and concerned about the low primary enrolment rate, he added.

According to the president, colleges often take great delight in turning down thousands of applicants who wish to pursue higher education. Higher education institutions should stop engaging in that reprehensible activity, he added. He urged the country's government and appropriate higher education institutions to guarantee the admission of all students seeking higher education by enhancing their capacity to produce a significantly greater number of graduates, who are equipped with high-quality higher education through the use of online and blended learning methods.

The most important ingredients for progress, according to Dr. Arif Alvi, are an educated youth and a skilled workforce. However, the rate of producing IT-educated youth in Pakistan is only 27,000 per year, which is incredibly slow when compared to India, which generates nearly 800,000 IT graduates annually.

He emphasised that switching our educational system to the Internet-based online and hybrid modes, which are now progressively being used very effectively in several countries, is the most feasible and quick approach to cover the gap between the necessary number of graduates.

President Alvi said, "As a nation, we need to shift our focus from power politics to providing quality education to our children and youth." According to him, the government, the Higher Education Commission, and educational institutions in the public and private sectors should come up with clear and efficient procedures to make sure that no student is turned away from higher education under any pretext or circumstance.

The president praised Allama Iqbal Open University and the VU for their excellent work in providing youth with affordable and high-quality education, and he endorsed the VU's plan to offer virtual education to Afghanistan, Muslim countries, and other nations that need affordable and high-quality education.

The Virtual University, founded in 2002, offers higher education and IT skill training to the nation's young and has grown to be one of Pakistan's most popular institutions in terms of student enrollment, according to Rector VU Prof. Dr Arshad Saleem Bhatti. Some 160,000 students are presently enrolled in the VU's numerous programmes, and 8,000 international students are also receiving their education by registering at the university, he added,

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk