Towards balancing life and livelihood in education for sustainable development – Rector

By Fazeera Fazarrah (IIUM Today)

GOMBAK, 23 April 2022: The current education should be focusing on the balance of life and livelihood as it would be much more relevant in the context of facing the present-day climate change, IIUM Rector, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said yesterday.

He was speaking at the closing ceremony on the completion of a one-year youth empowerment initiative in leading sustainable movements organised by EcoKnights, a non-profit organisation, which is a collaborative effort between International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), and the University Civic Engagement Club (UCEC).

“Going down to the ground and experiencing things that they are supposed to experience, working in our own creative way and thinking on our own feet is something that we have never had in the scale of university today,” he said.

He further encouraged students to anticipate in the broad dialogue and discourses on climate change as this particular issue barely can be found in the syllabus of education.

“I hope this will be a momentous event for us to push education the way it should be in the post-pandemic and the university is ready for this,” he added.

Additionally, he congratulated the participants consisting of IIUM and USIM students, for successfully integrating the way of learning into something that is exciting and pertinent, in executing their own projects with sustainable movements, in facing climate change as the focal point throughout this programme.

Supported by the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the closing ceremony was held at the Banquet Hall, Muhammad Abdul-Rauf (MAR) Building in IIUM campus here.

Present at the event were U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia, His Excellency Brian D. McFeeters, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of USIM, Prof. Tan Sri Dr. Sharifudin Md. Shaarani, Founder and President of EcoKnights, Dr. Yasmin Rasyid, youth representatives from the universities, as well as members of the media. ***