Focus on Pakistan: Report from COL President.
In a recent visit to Pakistan, Professor Peter Scott @peter_scott, President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) #COL4D, met with implementing partners Bedari and SPARC on the Empowering Women and Girls (EWG). With funding from Global Affairs Canada (GAC), COL initiated the three-year project in 2023 to improve the realisation of human rights for women and girls from disadvantaged communities in selected areas of five Commonwealth member states, including Pakistan.
The 2024 Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) Annual Conference was held at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in Islamabad from 15-17 October 2024. The event’s theme was “Expanding Horizons: Innovation in Open and Distance Learning.” Professor Scott delivered the opening keynote address, ‘On Being More Open’, at the conference and attended the remaining sessions, which included many presentations on excellence and pedagogy for AIOU’s development and innovation.
Professor Scott was a guest at the Higher Education Commission (HEC) with AIOU’s Director of Academic Planning and Course Production, Dr Zahid Majeed and Professor Dr Nasir Mahmood, AIOU Vice Chancellor, to address the need for higher education development. COL’s President also discussed Pakistan’s increased engagement with COL and the wider Commonwealth with the HEC team.
Professor Scott later met with the Federal Secretary of the Pakistan Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Mr Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani, and was shown a selection of Pakistan’s educational reform initiatives in the context of the Islamabad College for Girls F-6/2 illustrating how Pakistan is working to bridge the gap between government and private education standards.
Overall, the President’s visit to Pakistan touched on several key themes for COL, including the critical opportunities that NGO partners can provide for supporting non-formal pathways for women and girls to succeed directly in their communities and for some to come back into formal learning via Pakistan’s open schooling. He explained that higher education operations such as AIOU and the Virtual University of Pakistan are creating excellent access to bridge tertiary education for disadvantaged learners in Pakistan and, hence, accelerating standards and quality.
#COL4D #EmpoweringWomenAndGirls #EducationReform #PakistanEducation #HigherEducation #OpenDistanceLearning #GlobalAffairsCanada #CommonwealthOfLearning #GenderEquality
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Photos from Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises & Development's post
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Highlights from the Fall 2024 issue of the Commonwealth of Learning's #COL4D Connections magazine:
In this edition, under the theme ‘Learning as our common priority’, we take digital inspiration from the Pacific, as showcased at the recent meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) in Samoa held in October 2024; we continue to note the rapid and ongoing changes on offer through generative artificial intelligence tools; check-in on recent gender equality and climate resilience work; and more.
Technology in education, Pacific
The 2024 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report (www.unesco.org/gem-report/en/2024pacific) on technology in education in the Pacific is a unique tool for policymakers who are working to improve learning using technology.Developed in collaboration with the UNESCO GEM Report Team, this report was launched during CHOGM 2024.
Call for Abstracts and Proposals: PCF11
Inviting academics, including research scholars and graduate students, technology innovators, development practitioners, administrators, COL stakeholders and partner institutions for presentations within the scope of the theme and sub-themes (pcf11.org/themes-and-subthemes/) of the Eleventh Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF11).
Plus…
TOP 5 TIPS to prepare content using Generative AI
FOCUS: Supporting youth employment in the Pacific
OUR COMMONWEALTH: Celebrating COL’s long-term partnership with the National University of Samoa
TECHTRENDS: Remote and virtual labs – practical experiments at scale
Explore these stories and much more in the latest Connections issue. Download your free copy here: commonwealthoflearning.info/connectionsvol29no2-pdf
#CHOGM2024 #Resilince #GEMReport #OpenLearning #DistanceEducation #PCF11
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