student forum

 Two projects of the Unesco Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet) by Pakistani students have been selected for the ‘2009 ASPnet Good Practices Development Project in Achieving MDGs through Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Asia & Pacific Regions’.

The projects by two schools — Academia De Averroes, Lahore, and Grammar School, Rawalpindi — topped among nine selected good practices schemes, submitted by 43 countries of Asia and the Pacific Region. The two were awarded for presenting extraordinarily creative ideas in their projects during an award distribution ceremony organised here on Tuesday.

Under the ‘ASPnet Good Practices Development Project in Achieving MDGs through ESD in Asia & Pacific Regions’, Academia De Averroes, Lahore, presented its project ‘Protecting Biodiversity and Clean Environment for Sustainable Development’, while the project of ‘Social Work Activities’ was presented by Grammar School, Rawalpindi.

The Unesco ASPnet is one of the many activities being conducted by Pakistan National Commission for Unesco (PNCU), which has a network of 275 schools throughout Pakistan. Unesco ASPnet is a global network of more than 8,500 educational institutions of 180 countries. Member institutions, ranging from pre-schools, primary, secondary and vocational schools to teacher training institutions, work in support of international understanding, peace, intercultural dialogue, sustainable development and quality education in practice.

The Mitsubishi Asian Children’s Enikki Festa 2008-09, organised by the National Federation of Unesco Association in Japan with the theme ‘Here is My Life’, was won by Springfield Public School, Rawalpindi, for its portrayal of daily events and thoughts in the form of five pictorial drawings and corresponding five short essays on them, drawn and written by the students. The Grand Pre-Award worth US $2,000 was given to Arham Bin Tariq of Springfield Public School.

The award for 15th Kanagawa Biennial World Children’s Art Exhibition, organised by Kanagawa International Foundation, Japan, was presented to Grammar School, Rawalpindi. In this event also, children drew pictures on various contemporary themes. The purpose of the exhibition is to foster the dreams and creativity of children, who will be the future leader. Five certificates of distinction were given to Mohammad Arham Bin Tariq and Shaheen Amjad of Springfield Public School, and Aqsa Naeem, Hira Ghafoor and Mohammad Furqan of Grammar Public School.

The Unesco Photo Contest for Promoting Gender Equality in Education, organised by Unesco Bangkok, and was won by Springfield Public School, Rawalpindi. The contest focused on women and men to get equal educational facilities and opportunities, realising the full human rights and contributing towards development. The certificates of merit were given to Essa Tariq and Tallah Bin Nasir of Springfield Public School.

Five excellence awards were awarded to the students of SLS Montessori, namely Osama Mehmood Alvi, Muhammad Ammar Alvi, Kinza Nasir, Danyaal Shehzad and Hassan Shehzad. The students were awarded for their work in the Unesco Bangkok Education for Sustainable Development 2008 Asia-Pacific Mural Contest organised by the Unesco Bangkok. SLS Director Asiya Talha was awarded a shield by Unesco and ASPnet for school’s continued projects with them.

Unesco Director (Pakistan) Dr. Warren Mellor was pleased with students’ work and said he had learnt more about Unesco’s work by these students than he had in all those years of sitting through Unesco board meeting in Paris. He said: “Activism is not just about learning about an issue, it’s doing something about the issue and I have had the honour of working in wonderful places like Pakistan.”