RAHIM YAR KHAN, April 20: The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has become the largest educational institute in the country.

This was claimed by AIOU Vice-Chancellor Dr Nazir Ahmed Sangi while addressing a function on the occasion of setting up of the AIOU new campus in Rahim Yar Khan here on Wednesday.

He said the AIOU was a distance learning university where a large number of male and female students were getting education. Dr Sangi said at least 12,000 matric, 16,000 intermediate and 22,000 graduate students were enrolled in the AIOU.

The vice-chancellor said the AIOU had set aside Rs10 million for the training programme of 30,000 teachers while a training programme for the quality education had been started in 12 different districts of the country.

The AIOU was launching a PhD programme in computer sciences from next month in which foreign teachers would also teach students, he said.

Dr Sangi said a new AIOU campus would be established in Rahim Yar Khan, adding that Rs58.8 million funds would soon be released in the first phase of the project. In the second phase, he said, an overseas employees training institute would also be established.

He said Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani had approved a studio in Multan and the project would cost Rs53 million. Earlier, Dr Sangi along with MPA Javed Akbar Dhaloon and AIOU representative Abdul Khaliq Shakir visited the Government Polytechnic Institute, Government College of Commerce in Chak 72-NP, Technical Training Centre on Thali Mahatma Road and Agriculture College near Abu Dhabi Road. —Correspondent