BAHAWALPUR   -   The first two-day International Conference on Open and Distance Education was held at Baghdad-ul-Jadeed Campus, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur.  The conference was attended by more than 300 delegates from Turkey, Malaysia, France and Pakistan. Vice Chancellor the Islamia University of Bahawalpur Engr. Prof. Dr. Athar Mahboob said that the conference on the topic of Open and Distance Education is great significant where domestic and foreign delegates come together on a platform to discuss modern trends in contemporary teaching and will benefit teachers, researchers and students.

He congratulated the Dean Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Akhtar Ali and other organizers for organizing the conference. Dean Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Akhtar Ali in his address said that under Article 25-A of the Constitution, the government is bound to provide compulsory education to all Pakistanis between the age of 5 and 10 years. The Higher Education Commission has recently approved online and distance education. Under the vision of Vice Chancellor Engr. Prof. Dr. Athar Mahboob, the Institute of Distance Education has been upgraded as a Faculty of Online Education.

The first international conference organized by this faculty will add a new chapter to the educational horizon of Pakistan. The chief organizer of the conference, Dr. Faheem Mushtaq, thanked the foreign delegates for attending the conference through online sources.

 Focal person Dr. Najam Al-Kashif and organizer Dr. Muhammad Javed also addressed on the occasion. University of Sargodha, founding Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Riaz-ul-Haq Tariq gave a special address on the challenges facing the education sector in the changing times. He said that the changing demands of the present times have affected all spheres of life, especially covid-19, and the education sector has also been affected.

To address these challenges, it is important for policy makers, researchers and experts to come together on a single platform, for which the efforts of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur were commendable.