Last month, I appeared for the final exams of my PGJMC (Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication) from IGNOU. I had filled up their online form, marking my centre of examination as Thane, in a hope that my centre would be conveniently near my residence. But I discovered that Thane was a huge district, and my centre was at a school in Tarapur, Boisar, which is famous for its nuclear power plant. I reached the centre in time. That had made me woke up at 4 O' clock in the morning, and change trains once. The centre was an IGNOU study centre built up by a trust from Tatas. The examination hall was the same hall used for audio-video trainings. Places were marked for 20 students who were to appear for the exam. A girl was already waiting in the room, deeply engrossed in her last minute preparations. The exam was to be of three hours duration.
To my surprise, not a single other student turned up for the exams. The examiner came with sealed question paper, and after some rituals, we were allowed to write the exams. The girl was writing her last exams for MBA. But only two out of twenty actually turned up: only 10%! Ultimately it turned up that I too couldn't appear for two out of my four papers because of unavoidable reasons.
The perils of distance education in India are two:
1. Lack of quality educational institutes offering distance learning.
2. Low enrollment rates because the distance learning courses are perceived inferior than regular courses.
3. Lots of joining students are actually disinclined, and drop eventually.
To our amazement, all of these three points are interrelated. There are some individual institutes like Ignou and Symbiosis distance learning, who maintain a level of quality in their courses. But there are far more number of one-room institutes who sort of sell out the certificates. I have completed a diploma in industrial safety, and I can say that not only the course material was not up to the standard, but the final exam was like a formality. Ignou is an exception; its course materials are of very good quality, written in a narrative manner to facilitate distance learning, it has study centers all across India, and their final exams are rigorous. For example, for my PGJMC course, I received 20 books, had to submit 20 assignments in one year and had to appear for an examination of 4 papers. Otherwise, despite having thousands of colleges, India has not yet fully exploited the potential of distance education.
To make the matter worse, there are a number of disinclined students who join the courses offered by correspondence. Later, either they change their mind and join some other courses, or they drop out and start a business. The housewives, who take up some courses, may find it hard to continue, eventually dropping. The only loser in all these cases is the distance education system as a whole.
If the present situation continues, the private institutes may drop the idea of running these courses. Or, they will make lesser investments in maintaining the quality of the courses, to make the process economically feasible. A vicious cycle will thus start rolling.
Government can play a very important role here. Distance education plays a very important role in a country like India where both the literacy rate and enrolments in higher education are very less. Institutions like Ignou, though they continue to be beefed up with government funds, must continue. Some inquiry should be made in order to understand why exactly distance learning is not very successful in India. The practice of self correction and continuous development will make courses from these institutes much sought after.
No comments:
Post a Comment