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Huge investment in education a must for progress: HEC
ISLAMABAD, July 3(Daily Times): Huge investment in the
education sector is vital to rapid progress, said Higher Education Commission
(HEC) Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman on Monday. He was addressing the inaugural
ceremony of a three-day international conference on 'Recent Development in Fluid
Mechanics' organised by the Fluid Mechanics Group (FMG) at the Earth Sciences
Auditorium of the Quad-i-Azam University (QAU).
QAU Vice Chancellor Prof
M Qasim Jan, FMG head Professor Saleem Asghar and others attended the
ceremony.
Rehman said that universities were a source of knowledge and
could play a vital role in the development of a country. "Pakistan has to equip
young and bright minds with modern and research-based knowledge by ensuring its
provision in the universities," he said, adding that bright minds develop their
countries. Rehman said that Pakistan had 85 million youths below the age of 19
and 100 million between the ages of 19 and 25. Talented youths need appropriate
access to research and knowledge, he said.
He said the government would
keep on enhancing the HEC budget every year till it reached one percent of the
total GDP. He said the HEC was fully aware of the utilisation of the allocated
funds for quality education and its relevance to the country's needs.
The
HEC has made 25,000 international journals accessible to universities students
through digital libraries and videoconferences, said Rehman, adding that 40,000
textbooks would be made available to the students through its e-book programme
in the current month.
He said that almost 1,000 foreign scholarships
would be awarded to brilliant students by the end of this year. He said 2,000
scholarships had already been awarded in this connection. He said after three
years 1,000 students equipped with advance knowledge in their relevant
disciplines would return Pakistan every year.
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