By Rimsha Ali Shah
The PUAN International Education Conference held from July 22-24, 2016 in Islamabad with 200 exchange alumni from various U.S. State Department exchange programs from across Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka enabled alumni to learn through a series of skill-building and thematic sessions focused on key areas pertaining to education. The alumni also had the opportunity to collaborate and pitch their projects as part of the collaborative idea challenge, that encouraged alumni to come together and design projects on an education-based issue they were passionate about. Read on to learn more about the collaborative idea challenge, skill-building and thematic sessions designed to equip future leaders of education from across South Asia.
Channeling Collective Energies through Collaboration
“You can never put an end to idea. Never stop thinking.”
Nasir Shah, an alumnus of the International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) was part of the panel for the Collaborative Ideas Challenge that featured 35 unique and diverse ideas centered on the theme of tackling today’s education challenges. Alumni pitched their ideas before the participants and the panelists, after working on them for over 24 hours. They can now apply for the PUAN Alumni Small Grants for funding to execute their projects.
Dr. Shakirullah, an alumnus of the Cultural Exchange Program said, “This has been a great platform to share ideas and network!” He plans now to apply for the PUAN Alumni Small Grants (ASG) for his Collaborative Challenge Idea on fusing heritage and education together.
Interactive Sessions Engage Educators
“After attending Abbas Hussain’s session on critical thinking, I have been forced to think ‘outside the box’,” said Seema, an alumna of the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD).
The conference featured six thematic sessions and six skill-building workshops on pertinent themes for educators including critical thinking, modern approaches, quality assurance, community engagement, madrassah-university education, arts in classroom teaching, distance learning approaches and student-centered education.
Muzda from Afghanistan, an Afghanistan University Student Exchange Program (AUSEP) alumna who was in Pakistan for the second time said, “I learned so much from Mr. Merchant’s session on ‘Education for All: Modern Approaches and Trends.’ Since I am planning to apply to university as a lecturer, I found this session very helpful!”
Mr. Nooruddin Merchant, who conducted the thematic session on “Education for All” was attending his first conference in five years. He believed educators had to go beyond the normal and address the creativity crisis. “I strongly believe if opportunity is given to youth, they really can bring about change.”
Muhammad Amin, a teacher in Multan, found the session “Student-Centered Education” particularly helpful. “The hands-on approach of Muhammad Umer Azeem has been great! I feel I can now manage puzzling circumstances in the classroom and really be a ‘student-centric teacher’.”
For Dr. Saad Khan, learning about integrating music in teaching was a completely new concept. “The fact that we all practically engaged in how to sing and teach using music as a tool was real learning for me.”
Regional delegates also thoroughly enjoyed the breakout sessions. Sarath found the session on “Quality Assurance in Education” particularly insightful. “It was very informative to learn about the Quality Assurance Framework followed by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).”
PUAN International Education Conference also featured a live qawwali performance by Rizwan-Moazzam band, a theater play by True Theater on education and a rejuvenating violin performance by Ustaad Raees.
The conference also had an open house featuring different United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programs and United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP) to acquaint the alumni with study abroad options and opportunities available to them.
The third day of the conference took the exchange alumni to six different locations across Islamabad. Read more about it in our follow-up post.
Check out photos from the conference here.
