Facelift for distance learning

Distance education may not be free anymore. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has decided to frame a law to ensure delivery of quality education with a proper examination and admission system.

The new law being conceived for distance education in the country will cover all the correspondence courses of universities, technical education institutions and foreign on-line courses.

The decision has come along owing to complaints regarding the way distance education is being provided. The Supreme Court last year scrapped distance education courses of many universities like Chattisgarh University.

According to the ministry, the proposed law will look into three main aspects of distance education — course content, admission system and free structure and the examination system.

To do all this, the officials say, there would be a body similar to All India Council for Technical Education to administer the clauses of the proposed legislation and registration of all distance education institutions.

This will ensure that there is proper infrastructure for developing distance education as parallel mode of higher education.

The rule will also apply for the foreign universities offering on-line courses who will have to take validation from the council.

HT Image