Distance learning apex regulator soon

After tightening the noose on technical education,the government now wants to streamline distance education by constituting a regulator for the sector.

After tightening the noose on technical education,the government now wants to streamline distance education by constituting a regulator for the sector. The Union ministry of human resource development has proposed a separate statutory council for distance teaching and learning that will draw up a framework of policies for this sector,and help increase its total share in higher education.

The ministry has set up a committee under NR Madhava Menon,chairman,Centre for Development Studies to provide guidelines for the new council and its establishment.

Currently,an institution can start a distance education course only after it is approved by a joint committee of the All India Council for Technical Education AICTE,University Grants Commission UGC and the Distance Education Council DEC. DEC is an authority of the Indira Gandhi National Open University IGNOU that works for the promotion of open university and distance education system and for coordination and determination of standards of teaching,evaluation and research in such systems.

The proposed council is expected to resolve the problem posed by the existence of multiple regulators in distance learning space AICTE governs courses in technical streams,UGC regulates other conventional courses and DEC governs the courses offered by IGNOU. It will also aim to increase the countrys gross enrollment ratio in the higher education sector to 30 by 2020 which at present is less than 15.

The ministry has proposed a separate council for distance learning. Though DEC is already doing the work,it is part of IGNOU and hence,a new council is being planned, said IGNOU vice-chancellor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. IGNOU gets an annual enrollment of six lakh,which is expected to go up by 20,000 next year,an increase of 4. Its total student enrollment has grown to 2.5 million.

IGNOU,Indias largest open university,has 338 certificate,diploma,degree and doctoral programmes through 21 schools of studies,12 divisions,14 centres,and a network of 61 regional centres,2,800 study centres,and 52 partner institutions spread across 33 countries with the help of 413 teachers and academics. In 2009-10,about 163 new programmes were developed and launched.

We are talking to the people in the open distance learning space including private service providers and the state open universities. Another category of distance education institutes is commercial universities offering correspondence courses, Menon told FE.

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These courses,he said,need to be equated with conventional learning and the government wants the quality of distance education to be maintained.

AICTE acting chairman SS Mantha said the council under its policy approved distance education programmes only in MBA and MCA. Any other programme offered through distance education has not been approved by us. These approvals require tripartite approvals, Mantha added.

The committee headed by Menon will submit its report to the government in three to four months.