Varsities urged to promote STEAM learning in schools

The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (MoFEPT) has launched an initiative to improve learning outcomes in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) in middle and high schools across the country as it will provide a chance for the school students to be university-ready.

As a step forward, the education ministry has engaged eight renowned higher education institutes by signing memorandum of understandings (MoUs) the other day.

These institutes include National Textile University, Faisalabad, NFC Institute of Engineering & Fertilizers Research, Faisalabad, NFC Institute of Engineering & Technology, Multan, Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design, Lahore, Federal College of Education, Islamabad, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, and National Skills University, Islamabad.

Federal Secretary Education Naheed S. Durrani, vice chancellors along with other officials of these universities and Malala Fund’s Pakistan Director Javed Ahmed Malik were present at the MoUs signing ceremony.

The education secretary said, “Universities, with their expertise and resources such as qualified faculty members, laboratories, maker-spaces, studios, larger academic ecosystem, and a significant geographic spread of student population present a unique opportunity that the Ministry is keen to leverage to advance STEAM education at the school level.”

She added that their aspiration is for 100,000 school children and 5,000 teachers to be directly impacted by this collaboration within the first year of the partnership.

The education secretary said that a number of Pakistani universities already have interaction and outreach programmes targeting schools.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2022.