In pursuance to the announcement of one hundred days agenda of HRD of ministry by Hon’ble Human Sources development Minister, a New Policy on Distance Studying In Greater Education Sector was drafted.

BACKGROUND

1. In terms of Entry 66 of List 1 of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India, Parliament is competent to make laws for the coordination and determination of standards in institutions for larger education for investigation, and scientific and technical institutions. Parliament has enacted laws for discharging this responsibility by way of: the University Grants Commission (UGC) for general Greater Education, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for Technical Education and other Statutory bodies for other disciplines. As regards greater education, by way of the distance mode, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Act, 1985 was enacted with the following two prime objectives, among other people: (a) To supply possibilities for higher education to a large segment of population, in particular disadvantaged groups living in remote and rural places, adults, housewives and working individuals and (b) to encourage Open University and Distance Education Systems in the educational pattern of the nation and to coordinate and ascertain the requirements in such systems.

two. The history of distance finding out or education by means of distance mode in India, goes way back when the universities started supplying education by way of distance mode in the name of Correspondence Courses through their Directorate/School of Correspondence Education. In those days, the courses in humanities and/or in commerce were supplied by way of correspondence and taken by these, who, owing to various motives, which includes limited quantity of seats in frequent courses, employability, problems of access to the institutions of larger understanding and so on., could not get themselves enrolled in the standard `face-to-face’ mode `in-class’ programmes.

three. In the current past, the demand for larger education has increased enormously all through the nation because of awareness about the significance of larger education, whereas the method of larger education could not accommodate this ever escalating demand.

4. Below the situations, a quantity of institutions including deemed universities, private universities, public (Government) universities and even other institutions, which are not empowered to award degrees, have began cashing on the scenario by offering distance education programmes in a big number of disciplines, ranging from humanities to engineering and management and so on., and at unique levels (certificate to beneath-graduate and post-graduate degrees). There is normally a danger that some of these institutions may well become `degree mills’ offering sub- standard/poor high-quality education, consequently eroding the credibility of degrees and other qualifications awarded via the distance mode. 培訓師 calls for a far larger degree of coordination amongst the concerned statutory authorities, mainly, UGC, AICTE and IGNOU and its authority – the Distance Education Council (DEC).

5. Government of India had clarified its position in respect of recognition of degrees, earned via the distance mode, for employment below it vide Gazette Notification No. 44 dated 1.three.1995.

6. In spite of the risks referred to in para four above, the significance of distance education in giving good quality education and instruction can’t be ignored. Distance Mode of education has an significant role for:

(i)providing chance of understanding to these, who do not have direct access to face to face teaching, functioning persons, home-wives and so on.
(ii)delivering chance to working professionals to update their know-how, enabling them to switchover to new disciplines and professions and enhancing their qualifications for career advancement.
(iii)exploiting the prospective of Info and Communication Technology (ICT) in the teaching and understanding procedure and
(iv)attaining the target of 15% of GER by the finish of 11th Strategy and 20% by the end of 12th 5 year Strategy.

7. In order to discharge the Constitutional duty of determination and upkeep of the standards in Higher Education, by guaranteeing coordination among several statutory regulatory authorities as also to make sure the promotion of open and distance education technique in the nation to meet the aspirations of all cross-sections of people for larger education, the following policy in respect of distance learning is laid down:

(a) In order to assure suitable coordination in regulation of standards of larger education in distinctive disciplines via various modes [i.e. face to face and distance] as also to make certain credibility of degrees/diploma and certificates awarded by Indian Universities and other Education Institutes, an apex physique, namely, National Commission for Larger Education and Research shall be established in line with the suggestions of Prof. Yash Pal Committee/National Know-how Commission. A Standing Committee on Open and Distance

Education of the mentioned Commission, shall undertake the job of coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of education by way of the distance mode. Pending establishment of this body:

(i) Only these programmes, which do not involve in depth practical course work, shall be permissible by way of the distance mode.

(ii) Universities / institutions shall frame ordinances / regulations / guidelines, as the case may possibly be, spelling out the outline of the programmes to be offered via the distance mode indicating the quantity of required credits, list of courses with assigned credits, reading references in addition to self learning material, hours of study, speak to classes at study centres, assignments, examination and evaluation course of action, grading and so forth.

(iii) DEC of IGNOU shall only assess the competence of university/institute in respect of conducting distance education programmes by a group of professionals, whose report shall be placed before the Council of DEC for consideration.

(iv) The approval shall be offered only right after consideration by Council of DEC and not by Chairperson, DEC. For the goal, minimum quantity of mandatory meetings of DEC could be prescribed.

(v) AICTE would be directed under section 20 (1) of AICTE Act 1987 to ensure accreditation of the programmes in Computer system Sciences, Facts Technologies and Management purposed to be supplied by an institute/university via the distance mode, by National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

(vi) UGC and AICTE would be directed beneath section 20 (1) of their respective Acts to frame detailed regulations prescribing standards for several programmes/courses, provided via the distance mode below their mandate,