Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood said the government was working with Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) to promote distance learning to overcome the educational gap, and meet the academic needs of the people particularly during the lockdown period.
Highlighting importance of the distance learning system, particularly at a time, when the country was facing coronavirus epidemic, he said various available mode of distance learning could be developed to meet the educational needs of the people.
The living nations, he said, dug out new opportunities, while going through difficult times. Online mode of education was one of the best options to fill the educational gap, he added.
He said he knew that even some teachers faced difficulty in imparting education through online as it was somehow a new mode of education and there were also some public complaints about the access to online education, due to non-availability of internet or its slow speed.
Shafqat Mahmood hoped that teachers and students would utilize online learning programmes, offered by educational institutions productively during the lockdown period.
He also mentioned about Teleschooling launched by the government through the Pakistan Television (ptv). In that regard, he said an alternate educational content delivery mechanism was developed with partnership of the AIOU.
Meanwhile, AIOU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zia Ul-Qayyum assured that the AIOU would be giving all-out support to its ministry for contents’ development and their delivery in running educational programmes such as Teleschooling.
The university, he added, was prepared for sharing its 46-year-long experience in distance learning with other institutions to promote the cause of education as its national duty.