KARACHI              -    Dr. Muhammad Ali Shaikh Vice Chancellor of Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU) has said that SMIU initiated online classes immediately after closure of universities due to pandemic. “We were already advance in the online education and face no strain in this regard.” He said this in the VC Online Program on Monday while in order to address grievances of the students regarding issues being faced by them relating to their studies.

“When the government announced the lockdown we were concerned about the suspension of education, after realizing the situation we took alternate solutions within a short spin of time,” he said.

Our core objective was to save students’ semester, avoid disruption in the academic calendar and let the learning process continue. We already have a digital Learning Management System (LMS) at SMIU and we just trained the teachers, he added further.

Dr. Shaikh furthered we have also provided financial assistance/loans to needy students and teachers as they can buy digital accessories. The needy students were also provided an internet data package free of cost. The teachers were also provided Online Technical Assistance by students of their class rooms. Those students who were providing Online Technical Assistance to their respective teachers would get remuneration against the assistance.

VC SMIU has assured the students that their genuine issues regarding online classes, internet connectivity and missing lectures due to untimely outages shall be solved immediately as per their convenience.

While highlighting future plans he said we will launch more PhD programs as soon as the situation comes into normal phase. We will also start Hybrid and Online Degree Programs from next semester where students of other cities can earn their degrees from their home. “We are improving with the passage of time, very soon we will share online examination policy with the students’’ he said and added further “all the students should get benefit from this lockdown period to transform their skills”.

Meanwhile, number of students participated in this online program and asked various questions to Vice Chancellor Dr. Muhammad Ali Shaikh. They also thanked SMIU for providing them with an online classroom facility at their homes.