Sajjad Hayat Akhtar

A Critical Evaluation of B.ed. Distance Education Programmes in Sindh: Evaluation of B.ed. Distance Education Programmes in Sindh, Pakistan Sajjad Hayat Akhtar

Teachers consider distance education as an opportunity for professional development. Government institutions and donor agencies take it as a way of extending their outreach and service to rural or remote teachers and schools. In Pakistan, distance education programmes started in 1974 with the establishment of Allama Iqbal Open University. The University launched this B. Ed. programme in 1988. B. Ed. distance education programmes are being offered in four Universities in Sindh since 1995. There were two main objectives of the study: (1) to carry out a critical evaluation of the B. Ed. distance education programmes in Sindh and (2) to make recommendations for its improvement. An exhaustive review of literature on the topic was carried out which helped in choosing the parameters and entities for investigation. The required data was collected personally and through mail. The plan of data analysis consisted of narrative description and the use of descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. ANOVA, t-test and MANOVA were used to test the hypotheses and the data was analysed using SPSS and StatistiX Statistical Software. These information are useful researchers working in this field.