‘Pakistan can benefit from China in form of distance & e-learning’

Islamabad : Nazir Ahmed Sangi, former Vice Chancellor, Allama Iqbal Open University, has said that one area Pakistan could benefit from Chinese expertise and assistance in the form of laying out infrastructure is ‘distance and e-learning’.

Dr Sangi was delivering Guest Lecture on “CPEC: prospects for distance and e-learning for human development” organised by Islamabad Policy Research Institute here Thursday.

Dr Sangi observed that the full potential of CPEC is yet to be understood, especially in terms of its prospects for human development. He said the bigger picture is that Pakistan has a great deal to learn from this extensive cooperation with the second largest economy in the world - China.

However, he also urged that the National Education Policy of Pakistan needs to catch up with the CPEC initiative. Pakistan’s education policy needs to be collaborative and innovative, and accommodate DL and e-Learning by following high standards, developing good infrastructure and focused facilities. It needs to be a policy which is multilingual, multicultural and tolerant, he opined.

Stressing the importance of CPEC trainings and education, Dr Sangi called for producing dynamic professionals in commercial and engineering disciplines by developing strong processes and linked activities, safety procedures, skills, communication methods and team work ethics for rapid growth and quality conscious output. He pointed out that focused faculty for e-learning in both countries is required along with special CPEC Endowment Funds for institutions of learning. He said high level monitoring and vigilance is a must for collaborative Pak-China education projects to succeed.

Demonstrating AIOU’s first online Chinese language course modules, he urged that enhancing Internet connectivity in far-flung areas can revolutionise distance and e-learning and help equip the Pakistani population with modern skills and knowledge, as well as bridge the digital divide. He provided an overview of how AIOU broke new grounds in the fields of professional, scientific and technical education by reaching out to the remotest areas of Pakistan through modern Information Technology. He said that in far-flung areas like Umerkot, DG Khan and Rahimyar Khan, state-of-art study centres, with no faculty, were imparting online trainings and education to rural students. Earlier, Brigadier (r) Naveed Ali, Director Administration, IPRI, welcomed the participants.