Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has set up a Model Study Centre at Umarkot Campus, some 400 km of Hyderabad, to extend teaching facility in the country's remote and neglected desert region. The centre is equipped with modern technology including Chemistry and Computer laboratories, video conferencing systems, a multi-media project, Internet, a library and hostels.
Vice Chancellor, AIOU, ProfessorDr Nazir Ahmed Sangi said that the centre, formally inaugurated by Sindh Minister of Education and Literacy Pir Mazharul Haq, will facilitate thousands of students of AIOU, who live around Umarkot.
The students participating in various AIOU programmes will get educational facilities through video conferencing at their doorsteps, he added. The students from Tharparker, Mirpur Khas and other districts will particularly take benefit of the video conferencing and e-learning technology.
He said the Model Study Centre will help combat illiteracy, poverty, unemployment and backwardness in the region. It would provide access to education from grassroots to higher levels in different disciplines, including Mass Communication, Business Management, Computer Sciences and FA/FSc.
The university will soon launch Ph.D programme in the field of Computer Sciences. The students from Umarkot will be given 50per cent special fee concession on each programme for the current semester, he added. The AIOU, country's unique institution of distance education will also provide similar teaching facilities in other far-flung regions, Dr Nazir said. It intends to open around 3,000 schools all over the country as a part of rural Internet school education programme.
Pir Mazaharul Haq who is also senior minister of the Sindh Government has announced that necessary funds will be provided to AIOU for setting similar model study canters in other parts of the province. The government will provide additional fund to the AIOU for conducting computer and business administration programmes for the poor students, free of charge starting next fiscal year. He said the AIOU will also be tasked to develop Sindhi-Urdu software, since it has the capacity to do so.
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