KARACHI: “Children only get one chance at childhood and it is both our privilege and our duty, whether as educators or parents, to ensure their actively learning and not passively doing”, Philip Hallworth, director academics of The City School said while addressing parents, teachers and educators in the symposium on earlier education, entitled “Thought Leaders” on Saturday. He said that actively learning of knowledge, life skills and values would be the foundation for the future of children and that they must have fun doing so. “We should never underestimate the influence as we educators can have on young lives”, he added that Child-centric early years education develops confident, resilient, sociable and tolerant young people who then grow up to be the responsible adult thought leaders of future society. The symposium convened a platform for experts and influencers to exchange their best practices and cutting edge research in designing, developing and managing high performance learning environments for early childhood education. The symposium drew a combination of speaker sessions, panel discussions and workshops engaging local stakeholders, early years’ practitioners, schools and parents, to set the future direction for this critical area of education. Saboohi Irtiza, GM Early Years Education at The City School, laid great emphasis on cognitive learning among young children through interactive play opportunities. The focus of the symposium was on preparing children for the 21st century, which is characterized by great technological advancements.