PESHAWAR: Lack of timely information and awareness about the educational workshops conducted online by Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) for certain courses has put on peril the educational year of many students, according to sources.

They said that that the workshops were mandatory for completion of certain courses offered by AIOU.

Usually the university conducts workshops of different courses and degrees in-person on the regional campuses or at other educational institutions.

However, attending in person workshops was not possible for the students keeping in view the standard operating procedures adopted against Covid-19 and the university was conducting online workshops since the start of the pandemic, said sources.

Students complain they were not timely informed about schedule

The university arranges five to six workshops for each subject at the end of semester and before the examinations.

A student of the fourth semester of Associate Degree in Education (ADE) told Dawn that she was not intimated through her mobile phone or any official dispatch about the schedule of the workshops.

“The time when I got to know about the online system of AIOU’s workshops, I had already missed the workshops of three subjects,” she said, adding that she would not be awarded degree unless she attended the workshops, which would be conducted by AIOU in next spring semester, set for March/April 2022.

Another student of the same course, who also wished not to be named, said that by the time she came to know about the online workshops of her course, she had missed workshops of two subjects.

The webpage of the workshops, she added, seemed to be intended to confuse the students. For instance, in the ‘timeline’ portion of the webpage for the next seven days, it was mentioned that no upcoming activities were due, she contended.

“To my sheer astonishment, when I visited the website after a few days, I came to know that the workshops of the third subject were also in progress,” said the student.

A number of students complained that instead of facilitating students, AIOU seemed to be focused on deliberately putting their educational year at risk.

They said that those, who were attending the online workshops for the first time, should have been informed through their mobile phones or through postal dispatches about the schedule of the workshops and the process.

The students said that the university administration should have disseminated the information about the schedule of the workshops through television channels, social media and newspapers.

They demanded of the AIOU administration to re-conduct the missed workshops in the ongoing semester so that their educational year was not lost “due to the sheer mismanagement of the university.”

It merits a mention here that even if the students submit their assignments timely and pass the examinations with flying colours, they are not awarded degree until they attend these workshops, which are offered in the next semester.

No official of the administration of the AIOU campus in Peshawar was available for comments despite repeated efforts by this scribe.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2021