AIOU establishes Virtual Teachers Training Academy Portal

Islamabad: Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) on Tuesday established the Virtual Teachers Training Academy Portal at the Lahore Regional Centre which will be available to teachers across the country.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the portal, AIOU Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Zia Ul-Qayyum said that It would go a long way in eliminating physical barriers hindering the professional development of teachers.

The Virtual Teachers Training Academy Portal has been jointly envisaged and established by AIOU, JICA, and ALIGHT, Pakistan.

Speaking at the ceremony Provincial Minister, Raja Rasheed hoped that the Virtual Teachers Training Academy would help equipping teachers in far flung areas with the latest pedagogical skills and content knowledge leading to quality blended education of the pupils in non-formal schools and literacy.

He lauded the services of AIOU in promotion of education in the country, and commended the efforts of Prof. Dr Zia for digitalization of the AIOU.

Professor Dr Zia Ul-Qayyum while explaining about the Portal said that, “it is basically a learning management system which includes content, quality videos, learning activities, assessment and feedback policy to achieve standard training performances of the teachers living across the country, especially the far flung areas.

He said that soon all operations of the AIOU would be transferred to automated mode, and the university would be fully digitalized by July 2021, he hoped. The teachers residing in far off areas with no internet facilities will be able to avail the offline facility and manuals will be delivered to them via post or email to enhance their professional development and create a holistic teaching experience to engage students in activity based teaching, he added.