Pakistan, UNESCO agree to establish joint excellence centre in Islamabad

• PAK-UNESCO Joint Centre of Excellence will be established in Islamabad
• The UNESCO-funded centre will mainly focus on early childhood and primary education
• Federal Minister for Education assured to make all efforts for inclusive and equitable education

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and UNESCO have agreed to establish the PAK-UNESCO Joint Centre of Excellence in Teachers Training and STEAM Learning at Islamabad.

Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain held a bilateral meeting with Ms Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director General for Education UNESCO, in at Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on the sidelines of the World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education

Rana Tanveer Hussain informed about Pakistan’s resolute commitment to overcome major challenges in the education sector focusing on out-of-school children, girl’s education, and urgent actions required to mitigate learning losses.

The minister also stressed on the quality of education referring to pedagogy skills, faculty development & governance issues, introducing and embedding skill learning in mainstream education, and use of technology and STEM to assist the conventional mode of education.

He also emphasized on the damage caused by the recent unprecedented floods with recovery cost in education sector around $918 million.

He stressed that various interventions were made in partnership with UNESCO, however, the focus shall be on major challenges with high-impact targeted interventions instead of scattered collaborations.

The minister ensured that Pakistan will make all efforts to ensure inclusive and equitable and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities as in light of SDG 4 as well as commitments made in Bangkok Declaration and recently-held Transforming Education Summit at UN.

In my very important meeting with Ms. Stefania Giannini @SteGiannini, Asst. Secretary General of Education and other Snr officials from @UNESCO, we principally agreed on the establishmnt of PAK-UNESCO Joint Centre of Excellence for Teachers Training & STEAM Learning at Islamabad. pic.twitter.com/x0dRo1eRTt

— Rana Tanveer Hussain (@RTanveerPMLN) November 20, 2022

While considering the importance of teachers’ training and STEAM education, he proposed for Pak-UNESCO Joint Centre of Excellence (CoE) in teachers training and STEAM learning at Islamabad

The centre will be established with the support of UNESCO and will mainly focus on early childhood and primary education.

Ms Stefania Giannini informed that UNESCO has been doing its best to support Pakistan’s education sector along with other partners (UNICEF, WFP, and WHO) in emergencies.

She appreciated Pakistan’s commitment to addressing the educational challenges faced by the country. She also assured for mobilizing the global partners to provide all possible assistance to Pakistan’s education sector.

She welcomed the proposal for establishment of Pak-UNESCO CoE. She said the project will be covered under the component of learning recovery and education for all of the Bangkok Declaration, for which Pakistan will submit its formal proposal. Both sides decided to further engage technical teams for working out the modalities.

It was also agreed that UNESCO will enhance efforts for capacity building of the officials of Pakistan National Commission for UNESCO (PNCU). Both sides also agreed to engage on possibility of holding an international conference in Pakistan in a mutually agreed area of SDG 4.

Also Read

UN chief visits rain-affected Mohenjodaro heritage site

LARKANA: United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres on Saturday visited the UNESCO...