NUML DIGITAL SKILLS SOCIETY

Hello and Aslam-o-Alikum, I am Abdullah Saeed Abbasi along with my fellow Junaid Ahmed Dashti, students of BS-4(Public Administration and Governance) at NUML University Islamabad. We were assigned to write a blog on the project done by our seniors titled "NUML DIGITAL SKILLS SOCIETY" related to SDG-8(Decent Work and Economic Growth). This project was done by our seniors, currently students of BS-5(Public Administration and Governance);

1- Areeba Abid

➢ Project Director

2- Daniyal

➢ Project Coordinator

3- Irfan Haider

➢ Social Media Manager

4- Rehan Ali

➢ Liaison Manager

5- Sami Ullah

➢ Finance Manager

6- Sadia Aslam

➢ Research Analyst

LOGO:

Here is the logo of that project:

                                             

VISION

To create a sustainable digital ecosystem at Higher Education Institutes.

 MISSION

Empowering youth through the development of Digital Skills and Digital Literacy.

RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:

This study aims to present a descriptive and comparative analysis focusing on digital competences in three different areas: Use, Learning and Critical thinking, justified in a global situation of  intensive use of technology.

This study aims to understand the importance of digital transformation and Industry 4.0 in society. As well as identify the strategies developed by higher education institutions (HEI’s) to follow and contribute to the economic and social development of the regions.

This study aims to characterize the level of digital competences of university faculty and to analyze some of the conditioning factors. In particular, it aims to examine the influence of certain sociodemographic characteristics, such as gender or generational cohort, on the level of digital skills achieved by teachers. In addition, the study aims to identify whether the technological endowment of the educational institution and the type of digital skills training provided predict to some extent a higher or lower level of digital competence of university faculty:

1. To perform SWOT analysis of the current business curriculum already approved by HEC
2. To conduct interviews with the corporate sector stake holders to know their requirements in the changing scenario and particularly Pak-China Economic corridor (CPEC)
3. To find out the ways and means to make the current curriculum more market oriented.
4. To bring recommendations beside the HEC for improvement in Business education curriculum.

 Aim is to study and analyze the most complete theories about digital skills and the generational profiles of the entire population.

• Determine the extent of the use of technological devices as well as the Internet by the student body in    informal environments.
• Ascertain the degree to which ICTs are integrated into the daily life of the Z Generation.
• Ascertain the levels of digital skills by competency areas: information, communication, context creation, security, and problem solving.
• Analyze the results as a function of the sample characteristics for a better generalization of findings.
• Understand the possible implications of the findings in terms of teaching and training of the student body and, in view of the results obtained, study the curricular inclusion potential.

This paper focuses on the key role of digital literacy and the skills of students to use new technology that will have an increasing role in the integration in the European Higher Education Area. The aim of the survey is to understand: 

1. How university students use information technology in the course of their training.
2. What is the level of digital literacy of students in humanities. 
3. What is the motivation of students to enhance their digital literacy skills and competences.
4. What are the ways and means of improving the level of digital literacy of university students      (especially from first and second courses).

METHODOLOGY:

• Non-experimental quantitative and descriptive comparative research.
• Exploratory study, using semi-structured interviews and questionnaires.
• A cross-sectional, descriptive and correlational analytical observational study was carried out.

1. To study the need of the corporate sector both public and private and a survey will be conducted   

    concerning:

               a. Existing staff

               b. Lacking in the existing staff

               c. Future business plan (extension, diversification, merger etc.) and HR needs.

               d. Reasons for noncompeting with MNC’s and how to overcome

               e. How to develop business plans

               f. To establish business incubation centre in universities.

2. To study the fact that most government colleges have started master programs, but all are theory

    based. 

• Similarly, most of the universities are having affiliated institutes who primarily depend on visiting faculty and rely only on theory not on practice.
• Preliminary research
• Quantitative Research
• Empirical survey

NEW YEAR RESOLUTION

Date: 31st Dec 2021
Details:

In our new year resolution activity, we asked different students to self-analyze themselves and 

think of a digital skill that they would like to learn in 2022 to get better at their workplace. We 

get to know numerous skills on which we are surely going to work in 2022. We aim to scale 

up our project in 2022 with great zeal and zest. Keep Learning New Skills. Stay Awesome!

  

CONCLUSION/SUMMARY:

“Numl Digital Skills Society” project which was based on SDG No.8 “Decent Work and Economic Growth” worked from 27^th September 2021 to 1^st February. Their mission was to create an enabling environment for youth through the development of digital skills and digital literacy. This project covered the area of National University of Modern Languages. Institution they contacted, worked with and discussed the project were the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, National Skills University, Islamabad., NAVTTC, TEVTA, Digital Pakistan Academy, Digiskills.pk, SMEDA (Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority.

This project was mainly designed for youth and student. The main works on this project included Survey assessment, crash courses, webinar, workshops, meeting and other activities. They conducted crash courses for five days which include SPSS and Meta-analysis courses for three days and other courses they did were graphic designing and freelancing for two days. They conducted workshop to spread awareness and they practices Video editing, web designing, MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel and also told about content writing. They conducted a successful webinar on digital skills and freelancing and digital leadership. The core purpose of this project was to aware students about digital marketing and digital work.                                     

NUML MARATHON SDG-16 (Peace Justice & Strong Institutions)

Hello and Assalam O Alaikum. We were assigned a task to conduct an activity on Sustainable Development Goals as a part of our Social Action Project. The main purpose of this activity was to create Awareness among student inside university premises about SDGs and Pakistan progress regarding the fulfillment of SDGs which we have to achieve till 2030 and also how Numl is contributing towards SDGs

To perform this task several activities were conducted a group of two students was form to work on each SDGs. We were assigned to work on SDG-16 ( Peace Justice and strong institutions)

Group Members:

Raja Wajahat 

Mansoor Ali

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS:

Sustainable Development Goals also known as Global Goals were made to Achieve more sustainable and comprehensive and durable future for all.  These Goals were form by UN ( United Nations) in 2015 as a universal call to action to face global challenges faced by Humanity and Environment and to ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. These 17 Goals address the global challenges our community is facing and aim to combat these Challenges collectively and inclusively to make a better and safer world for our future generations. 

Sustainable Development Goals are urgent call to action for all counties (develop or developing) they are for all. Sustainable Development Goals comprises of 169 targets and progress towards these targets is agreed to be tracked by 232 unique indicators.

These 17 Goals are:

Goal 1: No Poverty 

Goal 2: Zero Hunger 

Goal 3: Good health & Well being

Goal 4: Quality Education 

Goal 5: Gender Equality 

Goal 6: Clean Water & Sanitation 

Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy 

Goal 8: Decent Work & Economic Growth 

Goal 9: Industry Innovation & Infrastructure 

Goal 10: Reduce Inequalities 

Goal 11: Sustainable cities & communities 

Goal 12: responsible Consumption & Production 

Goal 13: Climate Action

Goal 14: Life Below Water

Goal 15: Life on Land 

Goal 16: Peace Justice & Strong Institutions 

Goal 17: Partnership to achieve the goal

These are the 17 SDGs which are need to achieve before Year 2030.

Importance of SDGs in Pakistan:

Pakistan was the first country to adopt SDGs at its own National Development Policy through unanimous national assembly resolution in 2016. Sustainable Development Goals support units has also been established at federal & provinancal level with the Planning institution to guide SDGs implementation and monitoring its progress 

In 2018 the government of Pakistan designed and approved a national SDGs framework that incorporate a national vision to prioritise and localise SDGs focus of government is on main streaming SDGs. Ensuring strong monitoring and reporting on SDGs ensuring public financial allocations are aligned to SDGs and alternative financing modalities are being explored and to benefit from use of technology to accelerate the progress towards SDGs.

If Pakistan sincerely commits to achieve these SDGs till 2030 then Pakistan will be able to join the league of upper middle class countries by 2030. Since pakistan is a developing nation with a potential of 

64% youth. If we use our all resources effectively in right direction Pakistan can become a progressive nation by 2030.

Progress of Pakistan Regarding SDGs:

According to Sustainable Development report 2021. Pakistan with an overall index score in 2021 is 57.7% means that the country is an average 57.7 on the way to the best possible outcomes across the 17 SDGs. This score is 1.5pc higher than the country's score in 2020. Pakistan is categories in the east and south asia region that comprises 21 countries including China, Singapore, India etc pushing the regional score upwards compared to 2020. Pakistan performance has been increased by 3pc in the region.

Despite the covid 19 pandemic global pushbike Pakistan's SDGs global rank is 129 (out of 193) in 2021. Compared to its neighbours, india's rank declined by three from 117 to 120 between 2020 to 2021

Despite the overall improvement in thr score in term of Goal achievement Pakistan's performance is only on track against goal-13 (Climate Action).

10 billion tree tsunami initiative was acknowledged world wide. All other Goals progres is either moderately improving or stagnating and worsening in case of Goal 15 (life on land)

According to the Pakistan bureau of statistics Covid-19 specifc survey 2020 27.31 million working population was effected related to Goal-1 (End Poverty) & Goal-2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG-8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth) 20.6M people could not work during the first wave of the pandemic where as 6.7M people said that their income was declined. As a cope up mechanism half of the household reduced their non-food expenditures and 74pc of thr informal workers were effected 

The government came up with an Rs 1.24 trillion stimulus package to boast the overall economic situation and especially to reduce the deadly impact of Covid-19 pandemic on SDG-1 (End Poverty), SDG-2 (Zero Hunger) & SDG-8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth). The government tried to handle the effects of pandemic with diverse Strategies including including smart lockdown along with the rollout of of vaccination and continuing of Ehsaas programme. 

Government has taken number of steps to keep the SDGs in line. Covid 19 was a global setback that stagnate our improvement but Pakistan has dealt with this pandemic quite effectively strategies which are being acknowledged globally in different international reports.

The Health Card was one the great imitative by government of Pakistan during this period and it is also considered as one of the largest  imitative taken on health by any government all over the world it is been predicted that through this Health card 11 SDGs can be met. 

Recommendations:

We think Government need to push more sustainable and practical measures are required towards achieving these 17 goals till year 2030. There are alot of loopholes existing in our system that are needed to be address. According to reports Pakistan Rank 153 out of 156 countries on the index of global gender gap 2021. Corruption rank in pakistan increased from 124 in 2020 to 140 in 2021 with the score of 28/100. Pakistan Rank 140 in world on water and Sanitation 142 in drinking excess to clean water. 

According to the latest figures the under 5 stunted rate in the country is as high as 44% the third highest rate in the world with stunted prevalence being slightly higher in male children (48%) than in female chliden (42%).

All of these numbers are alarming and must be dealt effectively with concrete measure. These statistics shows that there is alot that is needed to be done towards attainment of these Goals till year 2030.

Progress made by NUML:

National University of Modern Languages is also playing a vital role in contributing towards Sustainable Development Goals. Numl keenly focusing on SDGs and is very determinent to work on these Goals with practical measures. It not only restricted to provide student with quality education which itself is a goal of SDGs but it also focusing on fulfilling the other Goals as well.

To support the SDG-16 (Peace Justice & Strong Institutions) different polices and measures are in place to fulfill the essence of Goal-16 of the SDGs 

Policy for University Measures:

Engagements of students and local stakeholders through active participation in connection with UN SDGs.

The university governance measures look at activities around elected representation of university stakeholders on the governing body as well as policy and processes to involve to involve local non-unversity stakeholders. Numl has this policy to provide policies and programmes to engage students and local stakeholders through active participation 

In 2020 to proficiently manage and run the affaires of university. Rector Numl Maj. General Mohammad Jaffer HI(M) (Redt) took a big step to restructure the university Forming Divisions. Office of Research innovation and Commercialization was assigned this task to propose structure in context of legal framework. The office played a vital role in planning and getting approvals from Board of Governors 

From December 2020, Unniversity started Functioning according to the new structure of Divisions with relevant departments and branches with respective Pro-Rector, deans and directors heading them 

This framework helped in making the institution more effective and vibrant in its duties. All these policies prove to be a stepping stone towards attainment of SDG 16 (Peace Justice and strong institutions)

NUML SDG Marathon Week:

Dr. Athar Rashid our Social Action Project Lecturer assign us to Observe NUML SDG Marathon Week in University and conduct different activities in this regard.

Following are the activities we Conducted 

Online Webinar:

To give students awareness and brief overview of Sustainable Development Goals and Specifically about Goal-16 (Peace Justice & Strong Institutions). We Conducted an online webinar in which we highlighted Pakistan performance towards achieving of SDGs and how by fulfilling these 17 Goals Pakistan become a progressive and prosperous nation. 

We also highlighted the problems Pakistan is facing towards fulfilling of these Goals. Specifically about Goal-16 what we are lacking in our Justice system. According to the World justice project's Rule of law index 2021 Pakistan is among the lowest ranking countries in its adherence to the rule of law. Pakistan is at 130th out of 139th countries. This shows how far we are in context of peace justice and strong institutions. Alot is need to be done for the fulfilment of SDG 16 in Pakistan

During our Webinar 26 students joined the session from different Universities in which 15 students joined from Numl, 4 students were from Comsats 2 students were From NDU, 3 students were from Islamic University 2 students were from Bahria University. We also took had a Questinaire Session at the end in which we try to took  students Point of view about Goal-16 of SDGs in Pakistan in which majority the students suggested that Pakistan has a discriminatory Justice system in which there is no meritocracy Big fish's get away from accountability whereas poors are keep on suffering in Pakistan.

Awareness Drive/ Pamphlets Distribution:

The second activity we conduct inside the university premises. We distributed Awareness brouchers among students and conducted interviews with students Regarding Goal-16 of SDGs.  

We reached out to 40 students and and cover 5 Deparments that includes IR department, Mass communication Development, GPP Department, English Deparment and Peace and conflict Studies Deparment.

Following are the questions we asked:

What is Sustainable Development 

What do they know about Sustainable Development Goals 

Are you familiar with Goal-16 of SDGs 

What do you think about the Justice System of Pakistan, it is good or bad?

What reforms do you suggest to improve the Justice system of Pakistan 

These were the questions we raised while conducting interviews in which majority of them were familiar with the name of SDGs but very few knew about why they in place.

Similarly to the best of my knowledge no one knew what is Goal-16 of SDGs until we presented them with the brochure. 

Talking about Justice system in pakistan Everyone solely agreed that Justice system in pakistan is very compromising and in very bad shape. 

At Last referring towards reforms few of the suggested that there is a dire need of judicial reforms in pakistan and one of the students share the statistics with us according  that there are 20 lac pending cases in Pakistan. ( which we verify after  appox 2,159,655 pending cases in Pakistani courts) 

Further he suggested that Judicary should work according to the law and political influence in courts hearings and verdict is mainly the core 

reason behind weak Justice system in pakistan.

AWARNESS DRIVE : 

PAMPLET: 

Our Experience:

Our whole experience during Numl SDG Marathon Week was all about making interaction and fellowship with students of various domain. First and foremost it helped us  understand how important Sustainable Development Goals are for Pakistan when we studied them in detail and we came up to an understanding that by just fulfilling these Goals Pakistan can become a much better and progessgive country because the road map and guidelines to achieve these goals are also been mentioned in UNDP website. We also learned several skills while performing this task such as  Time Managemet, Logo Making, and most importantly communication skills which helps us to boast up our confidence while interacting with students. 

Conclusion: 

To improve our Justice system and maintain  Peace its is very important to make our institutions strong and Empowered. If our institutions are strong and People running them are credible and take decisions on Merit without any Political pressure by doing that I think we can make a very good progess towards achieving Goal 16 of SDGs. 

Judicial reforms are the need of hour to make our Justice system effective. Pending cases are need to be hear and verdict should be given on minimum time. 

Numbers of judges and courts should be increased special courts should be established for dealing with cases that are special in nature to speed up the process of Justice. Because for the population of 225 Million country less than two lac are lawyer are registered with such amount of pending cases more judges are needed to be recruit. Training of young lawyer workshops for young lawyers is also very important in this regard. 

By taking all these proactive measures we can put our Justice system in right direction and also it will help us achieving the SDG Goal-16 (Peace Justice & Strong Institutions)

NUML SDG Marathon: SDG-4 (Quality Education)

Social Action Project

 

NUML SDG MARATHON

 

SDG - 4: Quality Education

Group Members: Muhammad Abdullah Iqbal & Zahra Shahbaz

Supervised by: Dr. Athar Rashid

Department: G&PP

Semester: BS-4 (PA&G) Morning

Assalam u Alaikum. We were given an assignment to work on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) as a part of our Social Action Project. The main aim of this assignment was to educate people regarding the SDG's, Pakistan's progress regarding and get to know about their knowledge about it. For which a number of activities were carried out.

Sustainable Development Goals: 

Sustainable development goals are made to help achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the various global challenges we face.

They are a way to fulfill the needs of our current generation without compromising the resources of the next generation The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

The SDGs are unique as they cover issues that affect us all. They reaffirm our international commitment to end poverty, permanently, everywhere. They are ambitious in making sure no one is left behind. More importantly, they involve us all to build a more sustainable, safer, more prosperous planet for all humanity.

The 17 goals include:

• No Poverty
• Zero Hunger                                                                                                                               
• Good Health and Well-being
• Quality Education                                                                                                   
• Gender Equality                                                                                                                    
• Clean Water and Sanitation
• Affordable and Clean Energy
• Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Reduced Inequality
• Sustainable Cities and Communities
• Responsible Consumption and Production
• Climate Action
• Life Below Water
• Life On Land
• Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Quality Education:

Whatever progress our society has made over the centuries is because of education. Being the foundation stone of society, education brings reforms, helps to progress and paves way for innovation. The importance of quality education cannot be undermined in society.

Quality education focuses on the social, emotional, mental, physical, and cognitive development of each student regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or geographic location. It not only prepares a student for a job but overall develops their personality. It aims at an upbringing where morals and ethics are taught as part of the curriculum to help them live a healthy lifestyle.

 

Progress Made by NUML

 

National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad has worked to implement all goals of sustainable development through different policies. For the implementation of SDG-4, it has

• Academic programs 
• Policy for lifelong learning in connection with UN SDGs
• Lifelong learning measures, 
• Confucius Institute
• Islamabad King Sejong Institute
• International exams center
• Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC)
• Business incubation center
• Iranology center
• Yunas Emre Institute and Turkology center
• Capacity building program
• NUML Reading club
• Child rights awareness session
• Webinar on importance of book reading, 
• Student clubs and societies
• Improvement of facilities
• Research equipment and Strengthening IT infrastructure.

Our Activities

Following activities were conducted in Marathon:

1.  Webinar:

We conducted 2 webinars on SDG-4 Quality Education. Students from NUML and its different campuses as well as from other Universities such as COMSATS, FAST, SKANS, AIR, BAHRIA and IST participated in it. In the webinar, we gave a brief introduction on sustainable development and the goals, we mainly focused on quality education, the targets/indicators defined by UN, and the implementation of SDG-4 in Pakistan and the challenges Pakistan faces.

                            

 

                                                                   

With the help of this webinar we spread awareness among 80 people about quality education and its need. Also we took their recommendations and view point regarding all this and the most common point on which everyone agreed was that Pakistan is not on the right track in terms of Quality Education.

2. Campus Drive

During the SDG Marathon we conducted an awareness campaign in which we interacted with the students of our campus as well as students from other campuses of NUML, that were here for the Job fair.

For the interaction we designed pamphlets by the help of which we briefed people and also distributed them among the fellow students.

                                               

                                               

We approached around 55 people, from different departments such as Korean Department, Economics Department, English Department, Department of Mass-communication, Education Department, Psychology department and students in the ESPC Short Courses.

 

From our interactions we found out: 

• That most of the people knew what sustainable development is but only briefly, 
• Very few of them were aware of the goals, their targets and their need. 
• Most of them had a brief knowledge regarding our particular sdg. 

At our part what we did was that we briefed each and everyone of them regarding sustainable development, what it is, what are its goals and gave them detailed info regarding SDG 4 quality education.

3. Interview

We conducted few(10) interviews with the people available in NUML; students and administration.

 

Questions raised in the interview were:

•       What is Sustainable Development?
•         What are SDG’s?
•         Do you know what is quality education?
•         What is quality education according to your perspective?
•         Do you think we as students are being provided with quality education?
•         On a scale of 10, how much do you think NUML is on providing quality education?
•         Do you think Pakistan will be able to achieve the goals within the prescribed time period? If no then why?

 

Response's included:

• Almost 70% knew about Sustainable Development.
• Similarly, 50% had a brief knowledge about what SDG's are.
• All of them nodded their heads when we asked them regarding quality education.
• To our surprise only 30% knew what quality education is, apart from that everybody thought quality education is only related to a good curriculum.
• After briefing them about what is quality education 50% said that Yes, we are being provided with quality education.
• On average when we calculated the response of the people regarding quality education being imparted to students in NUML, the answer came out as 6.5.
• 100% agreed on this that Pakistan wont be able to achieve the goals within the prescribed time period as we lack resources, proper leadership and dedication.

 

 

We had the honor of interviewing The Advisor Student Affairs Mr. Abubakar Bhutta regarding the implementation of SDG-4

 Q- What do you think quality education is?                                                                                             A- Quality education is the overall grooming of students.

 Q-Do you think the university is working on this?                                                                                     A- Yes, the university is working on providing quality education to its students. We have different policies to ensure good quality education for the students.

  Q-On a scale of 1-10 how much do you think NUML is providing quality education?                              A- According to me, it is a 7.

For the purpose of providing quality education, we all need to come together. We are going towards progress. As “Where there is a will there is a way”

 

We also interviewed Dr. Humaira Shahbaz of Persian Department, as the Principle Investigator (PI) of HEC funded National Research Program for Universities (NRPU) under progress at Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) NUML, working on SDG-4 of Quality Education with respect to inclusion of indigenous perspective of women empowerment by Dr. Muhammad Iqbal.

They designed a new curriculum for this as there was an existing gap in the current curriculum of Gender Studies Departments across Pakistan. They have established an organization named as “The School Of Iqbal Studies” (THESIS) committed for research and development in the field of Iqbal studies.

According to her, quality education is “inclusive in its nature”. 

Recommendations

To help achieve quality education we need to follow some steps that could include:

1.   1.     We could make educational reforms
2.     Spread awareness about the importance and need for quality education
3.     Make sure policies are implemented and evaluated
4.     Improve resources for teachers
5.     Focus on personal development and understand the need for constructive feedbacks
6.     Establishment of safe and supportive quality learning environments
7.     Provide an enabling environment
8.     Make education accessible for all - without a gender or disability bias

Conclusion

This NUML SDG Marathon Week has been a source of learning for us regarding SDG’s and it has helped us improve our communication skills regarding interacting with a group of people and briefing them about a particular topic. Due to the time constraint, we learnt how to manage our time efficiently.

One of the problems that we faced during this exercise was that people were not willing to co-operate, they refused to even listen and we had to convince them a lot before getting their approval or had to start over with another group.

Overall, it had been an interesting learning experience.