FEATURE: Of universities... real and virtual (Pakistan)

[Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>]

OF UNIVERSITIES... REAL AND VIRTUAL

Pakistan places its hopes for speeding up IT education in a new 'Virtual
University'. Advisor to Islamabad's Ministry of Science and Technology
Salman Ansari, who met Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org> at a
UNDP/Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme, explains what the
concept involves.

"IT SIMPLY MEANS this: about two-and-half years ago, we assessed that we
were producing about 10,000 graduates in IT (each year). If we were to
distil from this, I don't think more than 1000 or 1500 were of very high
quality," explains Ansari.

Other calculations were revealing too.

For Pakistan's own internal needs and software exports, particularly if the
latter wanted to touch the ambitious billion-dollar target, the country
needed about  40,000 top-of-the-line people. Each could generate export
earnings of around 35-40,000 dolalrs, says Ansari.

This served as an impetus for revamping higher education, specially that
related to IT.

Pakistan put in about three billion rupees into existing government-run
universities. This money went for building faculty and labs and was
primarily focussed on the IT front. 

"The more we put in, the more we discovered that the weakest link there is
the faculty. So we tried to get a number of people. We advertised heavily in
(international publications like) the Economist, New York Times and anything
would get across the message to (overseas) Pakistanis," says the IT advisor
to the Pakistan government.

Ansari believes that after 9/11 -- and the response of the US to religious
minorities after the World Trade Centre attacks -- expats in the West have
started returning home "in a flood", and want to "re-invest in Pakistan as
they feel very insecure in the US".

But this, still, hardly suffices to cope with current needs.

"One way to do so would be to create a very strong distance-learning
programme, where we could use common resources -- basically the faculty. We
went through the whole exercise of analysis, of meeting people, visiting
institutions like the Open University in the UK, and centres of excellence
in New Jersey, the University of Illinois (UIUC)," says he.

But there were stumbling blocks to implementing this concent.

"Number One was cost. Our students would have to pay Rs 70-80,000 per month.
This defeats the very purpose. Besides, the course material would not be 
adequate. It assumes pre-requisites which students in Pakistan simply don't
have. For instance, it raises issues of language, pronounciation, the
quality of production (most were classroom recordings), and the like," adds
Ansari.

But one of the most important issues was copyright.

"We wanted to use the material in classrooms, host it on the web, broadcast
through TV. So the only way we found we could get around this was to
generate content ourselves," says Ansari.

Thus came the Virtual University. 

It will involve an initial cost of Rs 200 million (US$1=60 Pakistani
rupees). Later, several add-on features will come about. This will include
an education Intranet, and a TV educational channel... all costing as much
as Rs 1.5 billion.

Also planned are studios in different cities, plans to convert content into
digital format, creating indexes to allow for asynchornous learning
(students can opt for any time when they wish to study), and even digital
post-processing to improving the presentation of the material to suitable
standards.

"Today as we talk (March-end), the first Bachelor of Computer Science
programme is being conducted," said Ansari.

Initially, only 1000 students are being formally enrolled as part of the
pilot project. Once it goes on-line fully, anyone in any part of Pakistan
will be able to sign-up for classes.

There will be some 28 tutoring centres, all being physical brick-and-motar
classes. Teachers will be physically present -- even if not of the same
caliber as those working at the apex -- to guide students personally.

Students would also be able to 'talk back' to the lecturers via the
Internet, possibly getting an instant response too.

By September this year, the target is to have some 5000 students. "By end
2003, we should have 25,000 students enrolled in exactly the same format,"
says Ansari. 

Behind this plan, there are also other initiatives to open up the Internet
in Pakistan. So far, it has reached some 570 locations, and the country has
reduced the price of Internet bandwidth, by as much as 75% recently, says
Ansari. 

Multi-metering of phone-calls to the Internet will also be a thing of the
past, he is hopeful. "So, theoretically, one could sit 500 miles from the
main city and pay Rs 2 for a phone call, and Rs 5 per hour of Internet time.
For five hours of lectures, one would pay just Rs 27 (in Internet and
connectivity charges)," says Ansari.

By December this year, Pakistan hopes that Internet access could reach as
many as a thousand sites in the country. Some are of very small capacity,
some are larger Class I areas with 2000+ lines, says Ansari.

Later on, it is hoped that the Virtual University will shift from just IT
education to also Science and general education. By allowing all cable TV
licence-holders to carry Internet connectivity too, the access is sought to
be enhanced.

Besides, cable TV licencees (a segment in South Asia that reaches a far
wider population that the total number of computer users) have been
mandatorily required to carry at least one educational channel. "So, in one
stroke of the pen, six million homes will get an education channel... by
force," says Ansari, with a smile.

In addition, Internet connectivity is being promised in some 430 post
office, some 1800 petrol pumps across Pakistan, and in other community
centres. "In three to four years time, we hope to have the Internet reaching
40 million people," says an optimistic Ansari.

Other plans are that in five years from now, there will be some level of
synchronous and asynchronous education across Pakistan "where-ever you are".
In addition, the plan is to have 60 universities connected by fibre by
October 2002. 

Also envisaged is linking back to the Internet-II in the US (the
education-oriented version of the Internet), thus enabling for collaborative
research and accessing each other's data-bases and content servers.

"This is one of the most exciting and one of the most powerful programmes
we've worked on so far," says the adviser on IT. (ENDS) 

FEEDBACK: Mr Ansari can be contacted at salman@super.net.pk