The education has been modernized in the advancement of the twenty first century. There are many different modes 
of getting an education. In the technologically developed globalized world, everybody is so much busy that people run towards the things that require their less presence and time and therefore there are many new horizons where one can safe time. Most of people cannot go to the universities and cannot follow the regular universities routine because they are occupied in other important things which they cannot leave. The distance education is a mode of education that has been there to compensate such shortcomings so that more people can get education. Distance education is that mode of education in which a student does not need to go to a college or university for getting education.
In Pakistan, there are many people who cannot attend the regular university classes and therefore they take admission in the universities which give facility of distance education. According to Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC), there are approximately 34% of the total students who are getting distance education from different universities. The working people especially women who are married or those women who cannot afford to come out of their houses to get education due to cultural reasons or because of strong patriarchal system take a great advantage of distance education. The material for study is provided to these students via many sources. Allama Iqbal Open University is particularly an institution for distance education. According to them the study material to their students is provided via radio and TV, online teaching, satellite transmission, non-broadcast media, and group training workshops etc. In 2002, the government of Pakistan has opened Virtual University for the purpose of
Allama Iqbal Open University
distance education and in the time of one decade it has improved the ratio of people having distance education.
Moreover, the range of programs offered by these institutions is not restricted and is an enlarged one. The various kinds of courses offered by such institutions include Economics, Business Administration, Commerce and Trade, Languages, Mass Communication, Islamic Law, Special Education, Educational Planning and Management, Agricultural Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Computer Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, History, Literary and Information Sciences, Pakistan Studies, Sociology, Women Study and many more.
The Higher Education Commission is, however, deemed to have concerns about the quality of distance education in the country. Since such students do not get regular classes, they usually start to study two or three months prior to their exams in which they study the selected material of the course and most of the students adopt the method of cramming the material instead of understanding. Therefore the knowledge, skills and quality of education in such students is lower compared with the regular students.
To conclude, where the distance education has proved beneficial in saving the time and money of the students and has grabbed many people who cannot get regular education due or one or many factors into its fold, it has also shown a less dedication and low quality of education in the students. There is a need of the improvement in quality of such education so that it can benefit the increasing population of Pakistan with the true meaning of education.