UHS to give android tabs to deserving medical students

LAHORE:The University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Thursday announced that it would provide free android tablets to deserving students of public sector medical and dental colleges for digital learning during Covid-19.

This was decided in a meeting held here at UHS with Vice Chancellor Prof Javed Akram in the chair. The others who were present in the meeting included Allama Iqbal Medical College (AIMC), principal, Prof Arif Tajammul, Service Institute of Medical Sciences (SIMS), principal, Prof Mahmood Ayyaz, UHS registrar Dr Asad Zaheer, controller of examinations Dr Saqib Mehmood, and senior faculty.

On the occasion, UHS VC Prof Javed Akram said that coronavirus had turned from pandemic into an endemic which would stay for long time to come and people, therefore, should learn to live with it.

He said that around four months of medical students had already been wasted due to closure of their colleges. He urged that medical colleges should go for e-learning without wasting any more time.

“There are subjects which can be taught through online classes. For clinical training, we must have contingency plans”, he emphasised. Prof Javed Akram said that around twenty per cent students in public sector medical and dental colleges of the province belonged to the families with very humble economic background.

“For such students, the university will not only provide free android tablets but also arrange satellite internet connectivity in collaboration with Punjab Information Technology Board”, he added.

Prof Javed Akram directed the heads and principals of public sector colleges to provide lists of their students who could not afford purchasing the tablets, especially those belonging to the families who were registered with the government for Ehsaas and Benazir Income Support Programme.

It was also decided in the meeting to constitute subject specialists’ committees under the supervision of Prof Mahmood Ayyaz to prepare online modules for various disciplines. The UHS VC designated SIMS as the nerve centre for that purpose.

GCU online lectures: Government College University (GCU) Lahore held around 411 online lectures the other day which were attended by around 7,100 students from the university’s 23 different departments.

A GCU spokesperson said according to the department-wise statistics compiled by the varsity’s Controller of Examinations Muhammad Shahzad, the faculty of Psychology Department delivered 33, Political Science 35, Economics 21, History 8, Philosophy 13, Persian 16, English 44, Islamic Studies 27, Punjabi 13, Chemistry 25, Biotechnology 3, Physics 10, Electronics 14, Zoology 20, Botany 15, Statistics 20, Urdu 18, Psychology 33, Finance 33, Computer Science 8 and Environment Science 26 lectures online.

GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi highlighted this to be a huge success despite the fact that this was the first week of online classes. Some teachers and students were facing connectivity issues on GCU LMS but they were allowed to deliver lectures via Zoom or other similar applications. He said students having connectivity issues would continue to try and use other traditional means of communication, including email and postal services.

The vice-chancellor said more than 500 teachers of 27 departments were engaged in this online teaching activity, while university reviewed more than 1,000 courses for online teaching. All of this was happening for the first time and showing great commitment of the teaching faculty, she added.