Smart Classroom inaugurated in Pakistan

The Weidong Smart Classroom, a flagship project of the SUSTech-based International Center for Higher Education Innovation (ICHEI) under the auspices of UNESCO, was inaugurated at the 13th International Conference on Open Source Systems and Technologies 2019 at University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore in Pakistan.

The classroom, fully sponsored by China’s Weidong Cloud Education Group, was built inside Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS) and will be an example of the application of information and communications technology (ICT) in higher learning institutions.

The Smart Classroom concept is part of the Pakistan Higher Education Commission’s Vision 2017-2025. According to Waqar Mahmood, director of KICS UET Lahore, ICHEI and KICS started their collaboration in March 2017 and signed an MOU for the Smart Classroom project in November 2018.

It aims to address issues like the lack and uneven distribution of quality educational resources for higher studies, help enhance teachers’ ICT capabilities in teaching and scientific research, improve the efficiency of higher education management and strengthen the international mechanism of industry-university-research exchanges and cooperation.

“The Smart Classroom will offer hardware and software support to improve the ICT capabilities of teachers at UET and build a platform to share education resources,” said Li Ming, director of ICHEI.

Academically supported by SUSTech and funded by Chinese enterprises, the Smart Classroom program will soon cover another 11 universities in the Asia-Africa region that have developed partnerships with ICHEI, Li said.

Long Dingbin, Chinese consul general in Lahore, Pakistan, said “cooperation in education is not only an indispensable part of the bilateral relations between China and Pakistan, but also an important component of China-Pakistan Economic Cooperation in the social livelihood sector. The launch of the Smart Classroom is a symbol of education cooperation between our two countries.”

Long appreciates the guidance of ICHEI in the establishment of the Smart Classroom with UET Lahore, which he thinks is “a good thing for the promotion of exchanges and cooperation in higher education between the two countries.”

UET Lahore is the oldest engineering institution in Pakistan and specializes in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

In May 2015, Shenzhen signed an agreement with UNESCO and donated US$2 million to establish UNESCO-Shenzhen Funds-in-Trust to support UNESCO’s higher education projects in the Asia-Africa region. A total of US$500,000 of the fund has been used by the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education on higher learning education projects in Asian countries.

ICHEI was approved in 2015 by the 38th General Conference of UNESCO. It is the 10th education sector UNESCO Category 2 Center in the world and the first Category 2 Center for higher education in China.