ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday directed the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training and Higher Education Commission (HEC) to work for the promotion of online education in the country, highlighting that the country needed to adopt innovative information and communication technology to minimize the loss of students in this pandemic.
The president gave these directions while chairing a meeting, which discussed various options to continue the provision of education in view of the closure of educational institutions.
The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Education, Shafqat Mahmood, Parliamentary Secretary for Education, Ms Wajiha Akram, Federal Secretary, Dr Sajid Yoosufani, Technical Advisor, Ms Umbreen Arif, Chairman HEC, Dr Tariq Banuri and Cambridge International’s Country Director of Pakistan, Uzma Yousaf.
Federal Minister for Education, Shafqat Mahmood, briefed the president about the initiatives taken by his ministry for providing education through TV Channel in view of the lockdown due to COVID-19.
He informed that his ministry had started a TV Channel, called Teleschool, to broadcast ready-to-air content on major subjects, including English, Maths, Urdu, Science etc. for grade 1 to 12 from 8 am to 6 pm every day.
He said the content had been provided free of cost by Edtech Companies and Partners, including Sabaq Foundation, Taleemabad, MUSE, Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and Knowledge Platforms.
The President appreciated the steps taken by the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training in establishing the infrastructure of online education in a very short span of time.
He congratulated the team of the Ministry for imparting education through TV Channel which would considerably help in mitigating the sufferings of the students due to closure of educational institutions.
