No facilities for disabled students

Special students who are studying at various universities in the federal capital are facing problems with moving around campuses as there are no ramps in institutions to facilitate them.

Almost all the universities in the capital do not have special washroom or ramps for wheel chairs or other facilities for special students.

The state minister for federal education and professional training wrote to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) asking that these facilities be provided to students with special needs and that it is the responsibility of an educated society to help those with disabilities.

“Since HEC deals with all public sector universities, it is being proposed that in order to address the needs of special people, a policy for facilitation of special people may be prepared and shared with all the universities and the recurring grant formula should also be included in this criteria. A weightage should be given to those universities [which] comply with policy while those universities which provide [the best] facilities may be recognised by conferring awards upon them”, the letter suggests.

Commenting on the minister’s letter, an HEC official said that the education minister was right in pointing out the problem and that there should be “proper implementation of directive and policies”, he said, adding that the politicians in this country only make statements and lose interest in projects that they announce.

HEC’s Dr Mazhar Saeed, who deals with construction projects, said that the commission will make efforts to address the needs of disabled students.

He said that the existing universities were constructed decades ago which is why they don’t have facilities for disabled students and that all institutes were now directed to facilitate disabled students as much as they can, including the installation of ramps.

“We have strict policies for the construction of new blocks according to which no buildings can be made without considering the needs of special students”, he said.

AIOU multimedia support programme

The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), which has its own television channel which it uses for educational purposes, announced that it will be providing its students with multimedia support in their education in the coming few months.

Necessary planning for the project has been completed and the university will now be approaching Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Pemra for permission, said Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Shahid Siddiqui while presiding over the Task Group’s quarterly review meeting of the Institute of Educational Technology (IET).

The move is part of the university’s efforts for providing quality education through the use of electronic networks, he said, adding that IET’s department has been playing an important role in arranging media and technology based academic programs for the benefit of students.

The university has already launched a web-channel which is working and the number of students benefitting from the online channel is estimated to be in thousands.

The IET department of the varsity is making efforts for preparing multimedia academic programs and is expanding FM’s radio network in the country, the broadcasts for which are made from the campus from 8 am to 9pm with a variety of educational programs being aired.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016