Mohammed Amin Ahemdani is the Chairman of
Technical Institute of Professional Development for Women (TIPD).
Originally an industrialist turned educationist. Before setting up
TIPD, the only institute which has come up with the financial
assistance of Asian Development Bank in Karachi, Ahemdani was an
active industrialist having large manufacturing units in Towel
Industry. Having wide international exposure, Ahmedani mostly spent
his time in England and Belgium. Country's leading architect
Arshad-Shahid Abdullah that really gives an impression of an ideal
educational institute especially designed the prestigious building
located in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.
By AMANULLAH BASHAR
Feb-11 - 17, 2002
PAGE: What is the motive behind
setting up of this institute and what is the driving force which
helped you to create such an institute?
Ahmedani: In our society, the major concerns
of the parents are the life of their daughter after marriage. In most
of the cases, girls are dependent to their husbands for economic
reasons. We have a strong desire to address this general problem of
the parents by imparting technical and professional knowledge among
the girls to make them financially dependent irrespective of their
marital status.
For setting up such an outstanding institute, aimed
at human resource development specially the women folk, credit goes to
his wife Mrs. Amin, who started her career with Habib Public School
Karachi. Besides the TIPD, the premises also houses the A.E.S School,
which also meant exclusively for girls.
This school has been established with the vision to
expand girl's education beyond the ordinary pattern of education
generally prevailing in our schools. The schools starting from Nursery
to Intermediate with special emphasis to prepare children for
technical education especially in the field of Information Technology
right from the beginning of their education. The TIPD has been granted
permission for elevation of its status to the University level.
However the management has decided to have affiliation with the
University of Karachi for its bachelor degree programs to be started
from August this year.
PAGE: It is an open secret now that
the education is the only key for all the problems faced by the under
developed or the developing countries which means that education
should be made available to every one. With this background why you
chose to confine your institute to the girls only?
Ahmedani: Yes you are right, in our society
the girls are still facing social problems and law and order problems,
once they are out of their homes to move around. In order to provide a
tension free and a friendly atmosphere for the girls, we have decided
to make our institute exclusively for the girls.
Women folk constitute over 50 per cent of the total
population and it is unfortunate that majority of them are
economically dependent either to their parents or the husband after
marriage. In order to give them a sense of security both socially and
economically we believe that girls in our society should be provided
technical and professional knowledge so that they don't have to go
under economic pressures in rest of the lives.
PAGE: What type of professional and
technical education courses your institute for career building of the
girl's offers?
Ahmedani: Besides offering a number of short
courses in IT such as computer orientation, AutoCAD, C& C++,
Desktop publishing, Web publishing, Linux & Unix. Operation system
and applications. MCSE, visual basic, Internet & e-mail, the
institute has also launched Operation Badar program for Java. The
certification courses at TIPD are especially designed for women of
ages. The objective is to provide students, working women and
housewives the opportunity to learn computer skills according to their
requirements in a totally comfortable female environment.
PAGE: Did you face any problem in
hiring a sound faculty especially purely women faculty to impart
quality education and better results?
Ahemdani: The faculty strength at TIPD and
school is about 35 members and all of them are highly educated with
sound technical background.
Rakhshanda Rizvan, Principal of the institute was
also present on the occasion looking confident the way things are
moving in the institute. She said that the institute is not after
money making. 25 per cent of the deserving students are given free
scholarship on merit.
PAGE: Are you satisfied with the
level of education in Pakistan and what steps you would suggest
improving literacy level in Pakistan.
Ahemdani: After decades of sufferings, the
education sector has been put on the right track once again. The
decision to nationalize schools and colleges played havoc with the
quality of education. Now it is the private sector, which is playing
the leading role in the field of education, and positive signs have
started to come. Some good educational institutions have come up on
the ground that are producing graduates acknowledged around the world.
There however remains a lot of room at the primary level in the
government run schools especially on the curricula and the teaching
side. Introduction of English language courses right from the
beginning is imperative to make our youth enable to catch up the
trends around the world.
|
