Promotion of

Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics

under the auspices of

Department of Home and Health Sciences

Basic Applied Education Programme for Non-literates:

Allama Iqbal Open University launched a project for rural masses with the collaboration and funding of Overseas Development Administration (ODA) in 1982. ODA is the part of the foreign and commonwealth office responsible for Britain’s overseas aid to developing countries for global environmental assistance. The project was initially known as Functional Education Project for rural areas (FEPRA). The basic objectives were

• To help the rural masses to learn and put into practice things which will be of functional use in their everyday life for the improvement of their economic condition, general health, social conditions and standard of living.
• To implement a strategy appropriate to rural areas which can be replicated and extended to different main cultural regions and also extend the out-reach system of AIOU into educationally deprived areas.
• To develop more courses based on felt needs and to carry out field-testing in order to assess their suitability in rural areas.
• To collaborate with Government and Non-government agencies concerned with rural development and act as a resource center for other organizations.

Initially the pilot testing was done in Dinga, Gujrat District in whole population of100 villages. The learning strategies were cassettes recorded in spoken language, flip charts for the illustration of recorded material, handouts for reference and recall, models, charts and the unit guide for the group leader. The group leaders were trained for the presentations and observed by the assistant supervisor and field worker.

The programme became ready for the presentation on large scale in 1985 with nomenclature of Basic Functional Education Programme (BFEP). The programme is running in District Kharian these days.

All the initial work including the pilot testing and course production was done in Department of Home and Health Sciences under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Perveen Liaqat, Chairperson; Dept. of Home and Health Sciences. Later it was handed to Dept. of Mass Education under the supervision of programme coordinator Mrs. Nighat Farooq.

Along with the other courses, basic health courses were also introduced. These include

• Childcare-I
• Childcare-II
• First-aid