President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday urged the universities and educational institutions to deliberate on creating a curriculum of the right mix of social sciences and market-oriented subjects to equip the students with social sciences and marketable skills.
The president, during a meeting with a high-level delegation of the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL), said the right mix of education was also essential to enable the students to get gainful employment and also pursue their interest in writing, literature other disciplines of social sciences.
The delegation was led by the PAL Chairman Dr Yousaf Khushk, and members of the Board of Governors of the Academy at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The president appreciated the PAL for promoting arts and literature in society and underlined the need to increase its subscribers and beneficiaries by increasing the reach of PAL’s literary products by pursuing a cogent, effective and efficient marketing strategy.
He said that digitalization could help spread and enlarge the reach of PAL’s literary products and services through web-based and cell phone-based applications which coupled with a marketing plan would help enhance its reach.
President Alvi appreciated the PAL for its efforts in preserving different regional languages of Pakistan, especially those which were neglected and were facing extinction.
He said that every language was a reservoir of distinctive knowledge, wisdom and heritage which needed to be preserved effectively and made available to the current and future generations as well as for the betterment of society.
The president said that Academy should double up its efforts to increase its networking by engaging relevant stakeholders, both local and international, to benefit from their experiences, and benchmark best practices and innovation to improve its efficacy and efficiency.
He also advised the PAL to ensure judicious and prudent spending of its budget to achieve its core aims and objective.
The PAL chairman informed the meeting that the organization paid monthly honoraria to indigenous writers and poets and bereaved families of deceased writers, who were facing hardships or were in economic distress.
He added that 1000 families of living writers and bereaved families of deceased writers were benefiting from the scheme.
He further informed that the Academy also maintained a library to provide necessary reference material to research scholars, poets, writers and students of literature and more than 30,000 books and journals were available in the Academy’s Library at the head office.
The Academy is an autonomous body which administers and coordinates all government systems for the promotion of Pakistani languages, literature and the welfare of the writers’ community in the country. It is also producing literary periodicals in Urdu, English and other Pakistani languages, and recommending recipients for various literary awards and distinctions.
