High Commissioner for Pakistan to Canada, Mr. Raza Bashir Tarar has lauded the efforts of Commonwealth of Learning (COL) for higher education and focusing on female education through their Girls Inspire Initiative. The concept of offline virtual classroom developed by CoL’s Aptus has given remarkable results in Pakistan.
“The Girl’s Inspire Initiative has helped in providing opportunities to the female segment of the society who have achieved the goal of being schooled trained in skills to earn sustainable livelihoods. This initiative has also helped to mitigate early and forced marriage in rural communities resulting in the female participation as a community in the society”, he said during a virtual discussion hosted by Government of Canada and Common Wealth of Learning (COL) in Ottawa. Honorable Foreign Minister Marc Garneau and President of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Professor Asha Kanwar also addressed the webinar.
In his address, High Commissioner, Mr. Raza Bashir Tarar said that Education is a basic and fundamental right of all human beings. Pakistan is a country blessed with a large population of approximately 200 million. 60 % of the population falls in the youth category. Pakistan being a developing country has a challenge to impart quality education to such a large youthful population a big bulge of youth. The enrolment rate of both genders in secondary education is somewhat encouraging while in the Tertiary education it is below the desired level.
He said he was very pleased to watch a video testimonial from a young Pakistani lady Syeda Daniyah Ali who has benefited from this programme. Higher education initiative by COL has helped to develop human resources for social and economic development in the countries of Commonwealth. This is a commendable service being provided by COL to help develop capacity building, policy development and curriculum reforms, he added.
