[Pakistan] "Virtual varsity to provide world-class education"

["Irfan Khan" <khania@super.net.pk>]

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Virtual varsity to provide world-class education: Atta
The Dawn, By Our Staff Reporter, 24/3/2002
http://www.dawn.com/2002/03/24/nat22.htm

ISLAMABAD, March 23: The government plans setting up of a multi-
billion-dollar fund for software export, as 40,000 professionals are 
required just to earn $1 billion, Federal Science and Technology 
Minister Prof Attaur Rehman says.  

He was speaking at the launching ceremony of the Virtual University 
at PTV headquarters here on Saturday. The varsity was formally 
inaugurated by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, and it would start 
functioning on 26 of this month.  

The minister described the huge human resource in the country as "the 
new oil reservoir of the 21st century", and stressed the need to 
develop and streamline it to meet the modern day challenges.  

Lack of emphasis on education in the past has resulted in the 
existing digital divide between the advanced world and the Muslim 
states, he said.  

"Our endeavour is to produce skilled human resources with an 
industrial vision, that can be absorbed by the domestic as well as 
international market", Mr Atta said. The Virtual University aims at 
bringing together a quality IT faculty to provide world-class 
education to a large number of students in both urban and remote 
areas, he added.  

He made assurances that the varsity would provide education at 
affordable price through public sector institutions. The government, 
he said, was also concentrating on developing a local market, where 
the students could be absorbed after graduating. The academia has 
lost a large number of qualified individuals to the software 
industry, both at home and abroad, and this loss has not been 
replenished, he lamented.  

At present, the minister said, the country was producing 8,000 to 
10,000 IT graduates annually, who could not contribute much to the 
national development as most of them lacked international level 
skills. The number of highly qualified professionals needs to be 
increased, if Pakistan wants to make progress on the information 
technology road, he added.  

Dr Atta said the university's per-student fee would be confined to 
Rs1445. Initially, 1,000 students are to be enrolled in the Bachelor 
of Computer Sciences (BCS) programme, but their number will be 
increased to 25,000 and 200,000 by 2003 and 2007, respectively.  

The university, he said, was a distance-learning programme that aimed 
at delivering high-quality education to the people through a formal 
setup. Classes will be held through television, and internet is to 
provide students-interaction.  

Initially, PTV2 will be telecasting two-hour computer programmes, 
while a proposal is being considered to launch a separate TV channel 
for Virtual University and other educational programmes, the minister 
said.  

The education channel will also be linked with the new satellite 
being launched by the year's end. This will make viewing of the 
programmes possible at Central Asian countries, Far East, Africa and 
Afghanistan, he said.  

The cable TV operators, he added, were also duty-bound under the 
contract to offer viewing of educational channels. This way, the 
varsity programmes will reach four million homes.  

Earlier, the university rector, Dr Naveed Malik, said the virtual 
university concept was new to Pakistan, though its application was of 
profound importance as it provided education 
regardless of geographical boundaries.  

The university is launching the first phase of its programme through 
associated private sector 
campuses throughout the country, he said, adding there were 28 
centres in 18 cities. Moreover, 
the teaching model developed indigenously is scalable and can handle 
more than 0.1 million to 
0.2 million students in various fields.  


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