ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday stressed that every university should start virtual education to promote higher and skilled based education across the country.
Addressing the 13th convocation of Virtual University, the president said that keeping in mind the evolving technology trends, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had also prepared a policy that was still waiting for final approval, under which all universities would be allowed to impart 30% virtual education to its students.
Dr Arif Alvi said the international educational institutions were rapidly shifting from traditional Brick and Mortar University system to the virtual education system.
In the United States, he said more than 50% of the courses in every university were now virtual and they were also improving quality.
The president said he had always been the proponent of online education and had been stressing that the online education should be promoted to disseminate knowledge in remote areas of the country.
He said the reason behind less development in most of the Muslim countries was that there was still resistance in adopting the new technology.
“The change will be possible only after ensuring timely adoption of the evolving technology,” he remarked.
Giving the regional statistics, the president said in Pakistan after only 10% students managed to enroll in higher degrees, while in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the ratio was at least 25%.
He regretted that around 28 million children were out of school in Pakistan. However in the regional countries, there was almost 100% enrollment in primary classes.
President Alvi maintained that the reason behind low literacy rate in Pakistan was the lack of leadership and lack of preparedness. Further, he said role of every citizen was also important in this regard.
He said when he became the president, total annual enrollment in the virtual university was 28,000 which had increased to 55000 this year which was quite encouraging. He pointed out that the university was running totally on its own resources and it was not seeking any financial support from the government.
The president advised the children to adopt good ethics and morality, and always advocate for love and peace in the society.
“We should always take care of the poor, down trodden and the persons with disabilities,” he added.
Congratulating the degree awarding students, the president said the market needed the two-year associate degree as it takes less time to be able to start professional and technical work.
Referring to the atrocities going on in Gaza, President Alvi said the ethics and morality had vanished away in the world.
Rector Virtual University Professor Dr Arshad Saleem Bhatti said the university was playing key role in promoting online education in the country. He highlighted that the students’ strength was also witnessing increase as during current year some 55000 new students got enrolled in the university.
Dr Arshad said the university was also opening its campuses in remote areas to provide quality education in every corner of the country.
He informed that the Virtual University was also establishing partnership with the international universities.
