Importance of Distance Education in India

Importance of aloofness genteelness in India Asif Ahmed after(prenominal) independence, India had make tremendous progress in the field of schooling, though largely quantitative in nature. Earlier, precept was available only to the elites in society, and a large majority of poor and marginalized people re master(prenominal)ed illiterate. Political considerations substantiate an of the essence(predicate) role in the expansion of high eruditeness, especially at the plead level. The state government experienced tremendous pressure from the public to plant more and more colleges and universities.In a democratic society, even the strong governments watch over it very difficult to resist such pressures and are compelled to succumb to the same. These considerations have led to fast expansion of higher knowledge in our country, which in turn, have adverse impact upon its fictitious character. Therefore, in wander to insure vex and education of a reasonably good quality, we m ust think of both(prenominal) alternative musical arrangement capable of supplementing the role of conventional scheme, and place education is one of such alternatives.The exceed education way was adopted by many universities to meet the ever-growing demand of those students who lacked means to pursue higher education with the regular stream. Also, there were economic constraints. Consequently, many universities in India in various regions started understanding courses or programs by providing notes, developing a system of evaluation of response sheets. The success of these courses led to the establishment of Indira Gandhi National unmannerly University, which is now rated as one of the best distance courses university in the world.Due to limitations of the stiff system of education, policy makers were attracted towards non-conventional modes of education for providing non-residential studies like correspondence courses. The quad bringing up mode, in which it is not nece ssary to bring all the students together to take heed to the face-to-face lectures, was considered worth piece of music. However in distance education system, the provision of episodic meetings among the teachers and the student is made. These meetings are popularly know asPersonal Contact Programmes (PCPs). The learners find one egotism their study genuine finished postal services for study at their home or workplace. The efforts of the students are supplemented by assignments, which are checked and evaluated by the concerned subject experts. So, equalizer education is a piece and resolve of open learning. hold education system is also known by some other frequent names like Correspondence Courses, Correspondence Education, space Education and External or Private Appearance etc.This system of education is suitable for the persons who wanted to enhance their qualifications but were not in a position to attend classes on a regular basis. such(prenominal) distance courses pr oved a boon for the service persons as hale as others desirous of pursuing higher education. As a result, a large number of in-service persons, professionals, entrepreneurs, job-less youth, school teachers, housewives and old aged free persons made a beeline for admission to distance education study programmes.The term place Education received a formal recognition in 1982 when the quatern decades old International Council for Correspondence Education was renamed as the International Council for Distance Education. The old concept of distance education was exclusively associated with print material, while the new concept of distance education include supplementary material being used by non-print media, also such as radio, television, computers, laptops, Cds, through projectors, video lessons and satellites. These institutions may be called the dual mode institutions.Now at present, India has deuce types of distance education institutions. They are 1. Correspondence courses insti tutions. 2. Open Universities. Distance education gets overwhelming response in India, the universities introduced many new distance-education job orient courses according to the changing times and students requirements. However, in this process, the actual motive of providing quality education to all took the backseat as the main focus of universities slowly shifted to making more and more money.Currently in India, the Distance Education de checkments are generating the level best revenue for their universities, in many cases more than even the professional and self financing courses. The only thing to check here that the government of the universities cart track distance education courses should sharply ensure that these institutions of higher learning do not get reduced to degree distributing institutes.So universities and distance institutions higher authorities keep ensure that only quality education should be provided through distance learning programmes. In case of resear ch based higher studies or some other professional courses being attract through distance education, provisions should be made for the proper library, laboratory and exigency study related essential equipments and materials for the students in coordination with other related universities running play similar programmes or located in the same region.It would rather be more appropriate if an inter-university body is set up by the UGC or The International Council for Distance Education of India coordinated by government educational related authorities to monitor and review the distance education programmes run by different universities and to ensure smooth progress of distance education. The correspondence courses institutions are offering more than 400 programmes in India, about 50 percent of which are professional in nature. The enrollment in these institutions is of the order of 9,00,000 in year 1999, which forms 11. 4 percent of the total enrollment in higher education in the c ountry. An important point to be suppose here is that the growth rate of enrollment in correspondence and distance education mode has been higher than that of higher education in global (Period,1990-2000,Source-UGC Reports). Distance Education makes it eminently possible to democratize higher education to provide access to high quality education to all, to offer need-based pedantic programmes, to promote and reach quality education to the learners to their doorstep, and to set and maintain standards in higher education.Relaxed entry and exit regulation, self-appointed pace of study, flexibility in selection of courses, self-determined place of study and examination. Freedom to pursue ones study at any other place simultaneously and cost effectiveness is the reasons subservient in making the experiment in distance education a success. The annual enrolment in Open Universities in our country has departed up from 2,00,939 to 3,50,000 in just three years, i. . , from 1995 to 1998. It is an increase of about 74 percent. Similarly the cumulative enrolment has almost doubled from 5,71,983 in 1995 to 10,50,000 in 1998. The world of technology is being reshaped by global trends such as convergence, increased bandwidth, enhanced multimedia capabilities, miniaturization, environmental variations, increase mobility, enhanced touch power, more powerful cognitive tools and reduced cost.These trends support transition across four generations in distance education models and associated delivery technologies Correspondence moulding (Print), Multimedia Model (Print speech sound-Video, Counselling sessions and continuous Evaluation Methods, TV / receiving set Broadcast) Teleconferencing Model (One way video and Two way Audio teleconferencing, Interactive Phone-in-Radio Counselling) and Computer Aided Learning (Interactive Multimedia, Internet-Based Access better known as community Access Device to www resources) and new techniques of making of Video Lessons and provide and avail these to students in the form of Cds.So we can say that distance education mode has become very popular and common in India, because it is catering to a wide range of aspirants (students), who are will to upgrade their educational qualifications for various reasons. The Distance education system provides opportunities not only to younger students but also to those from the older age groups. The main reasons for increasing interest in Distance education lies in the need for continuing education in todays competitive world. Every people endlessly try to add value to their competence in their bid to throw away their carrier further.Distance Education is also very cheaper to compare with regular mode of education. Distance education has greatly reduced the wall of distance between education and a normal student beyond the long distance of home or work place to university. Now just a little need to increase the need to make it professional and employability part of education community. References Ambika Sharanjit Kaur (1996) Managing Distance Education, Deep and Deep Publications, New Delhi. A. W. Khan. Online distance learning A model for development countries.Keynote address delivered at the international collection EDUNET-99 on Internet and Education held at Chennai on December 16-17, 1999. D. Pulla Rao, member Development of Correspondence Education in India An Appraisal. Indian journal of Adult Education, Vol. 67,No. 3-4, July-December 2006, pp. 59-64. Inayat Khan (1989) Distance Teaching, Amar Parkashan, New Delhi. J. C. Taylor, Flexible delivery globalisation of lifelong learning. Indian diary of Adult Education, Vol. 7,(1), July-December 2006, pp. 55-67. Prithipal Singh Kapoor, Article Distance Education Needs Revamp.The Tribune, Chandigarh. Saumitra Mohan and K D Prasad, Article Distance Education Insiders Story. Third Concept. July 2001, pp. 55-58. Sumit Dhawan, Article Time to Review Distance Education. The Tribune, Chandigarh, May 15, 2 007 Venugopal Reddy, V and Manjulika, S(1996) Distance Education in India A Model for Developing Countries, Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. , New Delhi. Article- Distance Education inIndia. Published in THIRD CONCEPT (An International Journal of Ideas, ISSN 09070-7247). November 2007 issue on page no 29-32.