Source: Friday Times by Wasim Sroya
There is much to lament about the state of education in Pakistan and concerns have rightfully been aired in these pages about the decline in primary education and the radicalization of the curriculum. However, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for Pakistan’s scientific development, and particularly its leadership in science within the Muslim world – especially since Islam is likely to remain an inextricable part of the national identity.
My cautious optimism in this regard was prompted by a presentation I attended by Dr Felicitas Pauss, the head of international relations at CERN (acronym from Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) – the world’s largest research laboratory for particle physics. This is the same organization where the famed “god particle” – the Higgs boson – was tentatively observed earlier this year. CERN prides itself as an international organization which is serving a planetary purpose of understanding our place in the universe. In one of the slides being presented by Dr Pauss, there was a demographic of all the countries who are users of CERN’s facilities. The largest number of CERN users was expectedly from places like the United States, Russia, and European countries. What surprised me, however, was that there were 38 registered users listed as Pakistani nationals within the approximately 10,000 or so CERN users.
Categories: Asia, Educational Resources, Pakistan