AIOU starts specific educational programmes for females

Islamabad

Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has launched most-specific educational programmes for the interest of females, enabling them to earn their livelihood and contribute to socio-economic development of the country.

The programs are mainly relating to community education, agriculture farming, gender and women studies, health and nutrition and marketing of home-made goods. These programs are from basic to M.Sc level for which the admission date for spring semester, 2016 has been extended till September 30, without late fee.

The females-relating programs have been specially designed to meet their basic educational needs. This is part of the University’s consistent efforts facilitating the women to get themselves educated even while staying at home through distance learning system. Currently, major beneficiary of the system are the women, which constitute 57 per cent of the AIOU’s total enrolment (1.3 million).

There has been growing trend among the females particularly those living in the country’s remote regions. Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Shahid Siddiqui has recently taken new initiatives to enhance educational facilities for females in the process of taking admission, appearing in exams and doing their internship, particularly in teachers’ training programs, like M.Ed, B.Ed and CT.

Special focus has also been laid on improving literacy rate among the females. The AIOU has recently entered into collaborative partnership with Plan International and a private NGO Sanjh Preet to promote female literacy in the country’s backward and less-developed regions through non-formal distance-learning system.

Under the agreement, First Track Learning Centres (FTLC’s) will be set up in the country for middle-level education.

In first-phase, a learning centre with 1200 girls will be set up in district Nankana Sahib by adopting AIOU’s indigenous model of education. Similar model will be replicated in other parts of the country through a gradual process to target the marginalized rural families, said Shahid Siddiqui at the signing ceremony. Such project aimed at establishing connectivity between the educational institutions and the society, he added.

The University has successfully implemented open-schooling model for middle class students in District Vehari, Chakwal and Thatta. It has facilitated thousands of out-of-school girls who were deprived of the basic facility of education due to financial and social reasons.

Dr. Shahid Siddiqui said it was their pride to cope up educational needs of deprived section of the society. They have already taken projects like providing free education to prisoners. Besides this an accessibility centre has been set at the University’s main campus to facilitate visually impaired students in their educational pursuits.