Minister Dr Sania Nishtar (centre) with Ambassador Syed Hassan Raza and PEC principal Nargis Raza Otho.
By Salman Siddiqui/Staff Reporter
A Pakistani federal minister has assured the Pakistan Education Centre (PEC) in Doha that she will help them set up a skills development and vocational training unit and also try to get it affiliated to Pakistan’s Technical Board.
Minister Dr Sania Nishtar was in Doha to participate in the “Educate a Child” initiative of HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, which is taking place at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC).
She paid a visit to the PEC on her way back from the QNCC yesterday and held a meeting with the staff of the school headed by principal Nargis Raza Otho. Syed Hassan Raza, Pakistan’s ambassador to Qatar, accompanied the minister to the school.
The PEC caters mostly to underprivileged children from the Pakistani community in Doha. The minister expressed her satisfaction at the facilities in the school and quality of the faculty.
In her meeting, the school’s requirement for capacity building was discussed in detail. Dr Nishtar was apprised of the need for a skills-building and technical vocational training unit. She was told that when Pakistani children from underprivileged background complete their education in Qatar and get to a certain stage, they are either employed in the police or armed forces or they go back home to Pakistan.
But if the same students also had the opportunity to go to a skills-building vocational training unit in Qatar, they could be quickly trained and be able to join the workforce in Doha.
Specifically, Dr Nishtar was asked if she could help the PEC in degree accreditation and affiliation with Pakistan’s Technical Board. The minister assured the school staff that she would try her best to do the needful when she returned to Pakistan.
Dr Nishtar was appointed as federal minister in the caretaker cabinet of Pakistan government on April 2. Her portfolios are science and technology, information technology, professional education and training.
