Recently issues were raised against the four-year course of Delhi University (DU). From ministries to intellectuals across the nation and media, all discussed the same. Some of them were for the motion and some were against it. Well the good point is all went in line to the will of the leaders of our nation and the way it’s happening since independence. The academic and education council of Delhi University allowed transforming the four-year course to three-year course.
Every year, 54,000 students take admission into regular courses of Delhi University, while on the other hand nobody is ready to talk about 4.5 lakh students studying in Delhi University’s school of open learning. These students were kept out of the four-year undergraduate course which was introduced last year for DU’s undergraduate students.
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| Distance Education |
The University Grant Commission has no grants for 4.5 lakh students who are enrolled in open learning and distance learning courses
in India and abroad. Crores of rupees are sanctioned to DU but only to
facilitate the students of regular courses. Now the question is that do
Open and Distance education students and their guardians do not pay
taxes?
Around 60 lakh students across the nation are enrolled for open and distance education playing a vital role in increasing the higher education rate of India.
24 lakh out of 60 lakh students are attached with IGNOU. Other than
this different Central and state universities are educating students
through open and distance learning. In India now, there are 600
universities and 33,000 colleges and by 2020 there will be 5 crore
students at the doorstep to take admission into higher education.
Educating these students will be the responsibility of the government.
The
major concern is that majority of students studying through distance
education (maximum number of girls) are first graduate which means the
first child of
family receiving higher education is very high and the rude behavior is
a major drawback from the side of government. For these students our
government has no planning and UGC have no
Funds
. Most of the students have a mindset of earning while learning.
In the first budget of the new government, Narendra Modi announced opening new IIT’S and IMT’S which is commendable as it is for the overall and multi directional development of our country. In budget of 2014-15 the amount allotted to the education sector is 68,728 crore out of which 16,900 crore is for higher education. But the good news is that from 2013-2014 there is an enhancement of 14.98% this year for the higher education. In higher education budget which is 7,138.97 crore, half the amount is just for the technical education institutes like IIT and IIM. After this announcement there are 21 IITs and 18 IIMs. In UPA government also there was announcement of 7 IIMs and 8 IITs but there was no such announcement for open and distance learning. But the Prime Minister and President of the country did not forget to mention the importance of online education for the students of remote areas who are also entitled to have higher education.
After this instance, Delhi University said it was not possible for the first graduates because the budget allotted for higher education is just for well known institutes. Government is not helping open and distance learning students. The fees taken by these students are also not spent for their betterment. Recently, thousands of students of DU open learning protested in front of The Human Resource Development Ministry (HRD) to allot every student a sum of Rs 40,000 and announce it in the budget.
In foreign universities or we can say globally distance education is very well established.
As there was a huge deficiency in the amount of resources it was decided to promote distance education to increase the rate of higher education. After seeing the increment in the percentage of students for higher education a committee was held under IGNOU in 1991, the function of which was to keep an eye on distance education but distance education council rules and regulations never have any uniformity. Sometimes open and distance learning was permitted and and at some point ordered to stop. Every time there was confusion regarding the rules and regulations. And due to this reason there was terror in the stakeholders in the education sector.
In recent years there has been an increase in the number of private universities and it was expected that this would help bring in changes in the higher education, but the government policies stayed in between as a rigid wall. The shareholders who are running the universities, colleges and institutes wish that there should be rules and regulations on distance education but should be for specific period so there should be no such confusion in minds of the shareholders.
In August last year a new rule was implemented and it was ordered that no university can impart
distance education out of their territorial jurisdiction while there was no such rule till last year. Why is there this change in these rules? If there is any amendment in these rules on what basis was the permission given earlier? The shareholders with respect to the rule used their whole capital and other resources and made an infrastructure. Now what will be the way out after this change in policy? Do we hope for this kind of casual approach in the policy making of our country? Who would be responsible for this?
The funniest thing is that if a university is situated in Noida it can give distance education facility till Ghazipur and Ghorakhpur which is 800 kilometers away but why is it not for the students of the capital of India which is just 3-4 kilometers away? If it is the aim to make youth educated and skilled why is the Noida situated university not allowed to start a course in Delhi?
The question arises, is there a mindset to provide special privileges to someone? According to the new markets
and policies it is the right to educate and this should be left on the students and their guardians which university they choose and through which mode (regular or distance) they want to study. And according to the
MARKET policy it is clear that one who will give
quality education will stay and the one who will not have doors wide open for them.
