‘Wonderland’ of education Students, parents delighted to get all...

‘Wonderland’ of education

Students, parents delighted to get all information under one roof

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Saadia Khalid

Islamabad

Students and their parents visited the ‘National Education Expo’ organised by ‘The News’ under the umbrella of Jang Group of Newspapers in large numbers at the Jinnah Convention Centre here on Saturday.

The visitors showed keen interest in different courses offered by universities from across the country.

The arrival of students started soon after the inauguration ceremony and their number swelled with the passage of time. By afternoon, the Jinnah Convention Centre was crowded with young girls and boys who went from one stall to another to obtain required information about courses of their choice.

Talking to ‘The News,’ students said that it was the right time to organise such an event as the academic session in most universities has ended and new admissions were going to open the next month.

“It is a good opportunity through which we can obtain valuable information regarding various courses offered by public and private universities,” said Rizwan Moazam, a student of ICS.

He said that usually students had to visit different universities in order to collect information regarding their courses and fee structures but the expo saved the time and money of many students like him. “Stalls of almost all universities have been established in the expo where all relevant information is available free of cost,” he said.

Another student, Hassan Nisar, said that comparison among different universities was made easy through the expo. “One can easily compare fee structures and courses of different universities after taking a round of the expo,” he said. He said the most commendable thing about the expo was that not only universities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have set up their stalls but also institutions of higher learning from other cities of the country also participated in it.

Female students took keen interest in stalls set up by universities offering courses in fashion and designing.

Afshan Khan, a student of FSc, said that the expo saved them from a hectic exercise of collecting prospectuses and information about different universities.

“I am interested in pursuing studies in fashion designing. I was not aware of institutes offering this course,” she said. She added that she got to know about almost every institution offering fashion designing through the expo.

Students termed the expo useful for interaction among students of different universities. They said that it provided them with a platform through which they could exchange ideas in different fields.

“Students of different universities are interacting with one another. It would add to their knowledge regarding different fields of education and update them with courses offered by different universities,” said Atta Mohammad while talking to ‘The News’.

Besides students, parents also visited the expo. They showed interest in courses offered by participating universities. Talking to ‘The News,’ they said that usually it was not possible for them to accompany their children to every educational institution for information but the expo solved their problem.

“We are satisfied now as we have visited every stall with our child and gathered useful information in no time which is obviously not possible in normal circumstances,” said Mr and Mrs Agha Hayat Khan.

They said that such expos should be organised on regular basis so that not only students get useful information but their parents could also be aware of different courses.