The universities’ must engaged students to work collectively in knowledge-sharing and research collaboration to combat the global challenge brought by pandemic coronavirus. The spread of COVID-19 was having a massive impact on universities around the world including Pakistan, said National Coordinator, Inter University Consortium for Promotion of Social Sciences Murtaza Noor while talking to APP on Tuesday.
As the situation continues to change the world rapidly due to epidemic, he said the top priority of universities would be health, safety and well-being of students. He said that COVID-19 has become a catalyst for educational institutions worldwide to search for innovative solutions in a relatively short period of time.
Universities, he said, were planning for several contingency scenarios and taking decisive informed action to limit the spread of novel while ensuring the continuity of teaching and research. Universities have transmitted courses to alternative means of delivery, making innovative use of technology and other ingenious strategies to carry out teaching and learning activities, he mentioned. Nowadays, we all are familiar with the terms “Social Distancing” and “Self-Isolation”, and this is part of our individual and collective efforts to slow and limit the spread of COVID-19, he said.
He feared that the pandemic was expected to have enormous consequences and would also have a devastating impact on global education. The role of university students was vital in such crisis, he said. He underlined the need of educating the students and young people to understand basic, age-appropriate information about coronavirus including its symptoms, complications, and how it is transmitted.
He stressed that the students should be aware of fake information or myths that may circulated by word-of-mouth or via social media. During the closure of educational institutions, Murtaza hoped that the students, researchers, teachers, faculty members and administrators should not take these vacations as free time, rather they should utilize their time effectively and intelligently.
He urged the students to utilize their time by enrolling in informative courses by visiting renowned websites offering courses like Coursera, Udemy and others. They should also assist in preparing support material against COVID-19 i.e. sanitizers, masks and cheap testing kits.
Inter University Consortium for Promotion of Social Sciences Pakistan, a largest network of Pakistani universities has already announced online course on Public Health and Civic Education which can be availed.—APP
