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LAHORE, Jan 01 (APP): Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Wajiha Qamar has formally acknowledged and appreciated the scholarly contribution of Prof Dr Aurangzeb Hafi, author of the Deca-Archic Model of Phygital Literacy, describing it as a comprehensive and future-oriented framework for integrating ‘In Real Life’ (IRL) and ‘In Virtual Life’ (IVL) education systems.
In a message on the launching event of the model, the minister noted that the model responds directly to the accelerating convergence of physical and digital learning environments. She said her recent engagement with Prof Hafi involved an in-depth discussion on the conceptual rigor, policy relevance, and global applicability of the framework, particularly at a time when education systems are grappling with the cognitive, ethical, and societal implications of rapid digitalisation.
Wajiha Qamar observed that while scholars and institutions such as Complutense University of Madrid, Bocconi University, Columbia University, Stanford University, and the University of Florida have contributed to the evolving discourse on phygital education, Pakistan’s Deca-Archic Phygital Literacy Model significantly advances the field through its depth, integration, and policy orientation.
She added that the framework positions Pakistan at a pioneering edge in modern education reform. She said that the model is well-met with the standards of UNESCO, the National Postdoctoral Academia (NPA, US), the Asia & Oceania Post-Doctoral Academia (AOPDA), SAIRI, and other international platforms dedicated to education, science, research, and technology.
Wajiha Qamar highlighted that the defining strength of the model lies in its 10 core components, which collectively provide a structural, operational, and analytical roadmap for advancing phygital literacy in the 21st century.
The first core component focuses on bridging the widening divide between Real Life Information Processing (RLIP) dynamics and Cyberspace Information Processing (CSIP) mechanisms, addressing the cognitive and behavioural discontinuities emerging as learners move between physical and digital domains.
The second component stresses deep interdisciplinary integration, aligning the penta-archic realms of science — natural, normative, social, formal, and applied sciences — with the penta-archic frames of arts, including literary arts, retro and revival arts, AI and algorithmic arts, biotech and eco-sustainability arts, and culinary arts. This integration is positioned as essential for holistic knowledge formation in phygital contexts.
The third component equips learners with the capacity to discern the credibility, accuracy, intent, and ethical orientation of algorithmically generated and virtually perpetuated content, strengthening critical digital judgment.
The fourth component examines how physical and digital environments shape perceptual behaviour, influencing individual cognition as well as broader socio-cultural interactions.
The fifth component calls for detailed and broad-spectrum recognition of user experience, ensuring that learning design and evaluation are grounded in lived, contextual realities rather than abstract metrics alone.
The sixth component identifies the two-fold modes of reception and conception, acknowledging that information is absorbed, processed, and internalised differently across real-world engagement and digital mediation.
The seventh component introduces probability-based analysis of immediate actions and reactions, enabling educators and researchers to anticipate short-term behavioural responses triggered by phygital stimuli.
The eighth component extends probabilistic inquiry to long-term behavioural trajectories, assessing how sustained exposure to digital systems may influence future decisions, habits, and social patterns.
The ninth component seeks to enable meaningful participation in a digitally driven society, while safeguarding individuals against misinformation, cognitive overload, behavioural manipulation, and ethical erosion.
The tenth and final component provides a systemic understanding of bidirectional influence between digital information systems and the physical world, analysing how algorithmically controlled data can trigger real-world actions and how physical actions can, in turn, shape, distort, or perpetuate cyberspace data across decades or even centuries.
The minister noted that the model’s analytical depth is further reinforced by its Deca-Archic structural foundation, which provides the philosophical and epistemic scaffolding for the ten core components.
The 10 arches collectively establish the philosophical and analytical foundation of the Deca-Archic Model of Phygital Literacy by grounding it in human purpose, lived experience, and conceptual clarity, while systematically accounting for cognitive differentiation, contextual influences, and socio-cultural dynamics. They further structure learning through mapped cognitive progression, long-term impact assessment, cross-domain comparison, and multi-perspective integration, ensuring that the model’s ten core components operate coherently, holistically, and sustainably across real and digital domains.
Concluding her message, the minister commended Prof Dr Aurangzeb Hafi for his intellectual leadership and expressed confidence that the integrated structure of ten core components, supported by ten arches, will inform future curricula, research agendas, and governance frameworks for phygital literacy in Pakistan and beyond.
Meanwhile, Justice (retd) Dr. S. S. Paru, Chancellor Emeritus of the Asia & Oceania Post-Doctoral Academia, lauded the model as the world’s first fully human-centric phygital literacy framework, stating that Prof Dr Aurangzeb Hafi’s work places Pakistan and Asia at the forefront of 21st-century educational transformation and marks the beginning of a new global era of phygitalisation.
Also, Dr. Alex J., Senior Research Analyst at the UNESCO-SAARC Academic Alliance, congratulated Prof Dr Aurangzeb Hafi on what he termed a “state-of-the-art, methodologically refined, and globally significant breakthrough”, describing the Deca-Archic Model as a landmark contribution to postdoctoral research and a defining framework for future centuries of phygital scholarship.