The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) will launch its own TV channel to promote distance education for the benefit of its students at home and abroad. It is a part of the university’s consistent efforts to provide quality education through electronic network. This was stated by Students Affairs Director Dr Syed Hassan Raza while briefing a group of the DAE Electronics final year’s students from the Swedish Pakistan College of Technology, Gujrat during their visit to the AIOU. He said necessary work for the establishment of the educational channel is already in progress. The AIOU has already put up its FM radio wire service on the University’s website to ensure it wide access to its listeners, he added. Dr Raza also briefed the students about the recently introduced ‘Centre for Instructional Design’ which converts written material into an electronic version. The students will be able to get the electronic version of their syllabi through CD’s at their home stations. He also informed the students that the AIOU has also launched job oriented-programmes in different fields for the benefit of its students living in far-flung areas. This is in line with the government’s policy to bring socio-economic uplift in the country through expanded quality education network. “We are trying our best, under the leadership of Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Nazir Ahmed Sangi to ensure access of quality education to our students through video-conferencing and other e-learning systems,” he added.
Swedish Pakistani College of Technology Industrial Tour Coordinator Muhammad Idrees lauded the role of the university in promoting distance-education through latest internet-based electronic techniques.