Female students demand AIOU centre at Lower Dir

TIMERGARA: Female students from Lower and Upper Dir districts have demanded the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) Islamabad management to set up a workshop centre at Timergara as it was impossible for them to travel daily to Swat to attend workshops there.

Talking to this correspondent by phone from Rahimabad, Swat, Hameeda Begum, a BEd student and schoolteacher, said she went to Swat from Balambat area in Lower Dir to attend the workshop while leaving her two-year-old son at home.

“I left my little son at home because it was raining heavily and the cold weather might have affected my child’s health,” she said. Another student from Timergara, Zainab, said: “I am worried that how I would travel to Swat along with my 14-month-old daughter for six consecutive days to attend my BEd workshop there.”

Nageena Naz from Warai area in Upper Dir said that the AIOU administration should take notice of this matter and set up the workshop centre in Timergara, which will be easily accessible for all students of Lower and Upper Dir. “I came from Usherai Darra in Upper Dir to attend the workshop along with my brother,” Nooreena said, fearing that she would have to quit the workshop as it wasn’t possible for her to continue the workshop in Swat.

“It is a question mark on the performance of AIOU administration to have set up workshop centre at an inaccessible place for female students in a sheer violation of local traditions,” said Najma, a BEd student from Munda in Lower Dir.

“We are fed up with the indifferent attitude of the AIOU management that has always discouraged students for the sake of money,” said Musabbiha, hailing from Malakand.

When contacted, AIOU Lower Dir coordinator Ali Haider said it was up to the AIOU Islamabad management to decide to set up a workshop centre in Timergara.