M. Ajantha Kumar
Assistant Director, Dr.BR. Ambedkar Open University, Regional Centre,
Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
Abstract
India faces severe problems in education like huge drop outs from Schools, Colleges, Universities and poor merge GER enrolment ratio of 26.3%. Another crisis is quality in higher education due to lack of professional training got various levels of teachers reflected on the performance of students. This lead to poor performance of students which created huge vacuum as the market is unable to absorb into the Job market. In addition to this access to higher education is limited to a few sections of the society because of location of the institutions and affordability. To overcome different policies have introduced distance Learning Centre’s to cater to the needs of the aspiring people to get education. The NEP 2020’s importance and its integrated approach is critically analyzed to have a comprehensive understanding of the policy in transforming the Education system in India.
Keywords: Professional training, Allocation, Distance education, Multi-disciplinary, Quality, Pedagogy and Methodologies, Learning process.
Introduction:
Higher Education in India suffers a lot due to insufficient allocation of funds proportionate to the population which seeks education. It is a pre-requisition for trained teachers is a major challenge in educating the youth of the country. To meet the needs of the younger population we have witnessed several Education Policies introduced since independence. One of them being 1968 policy which envisaged all types of education including distance education. Attempts to realize the goals of the policy could not make its way in reaching the all segments of the society. After that successive governments introduced Education Policies in 1986,1992 and 2020. After gap of 34 years New Education Policy was introduced in 2020. It envisaged the importance of culture and development with a holistic and visionary approach.
Given scenario India faces severe problems in education like huge drop outs from Schools, Colleges, Universities and poor merge GER enrolment ratio of 26.3%. Another crisis is quality in higher education due to lack of professional training got various levels of teachers reflected on the performance of students. This lead to poor performance of students which created huge vacuum as the market is unable to absorb into the Job market. In addition to this access to higher education is limited to a few sections of the society because of location of the institutions and affordability. To overcome different policies have introduced distance Learning Centre’s to cater to the needs of the aspiring people to get education. This open and Distance Learning approaches have been contributing significantly to the education system.
In light of the above situation the present article portrait’s the importance of open and distance learning and how can this be reinforced as mentioned in the NEP of 2020. The new document insistent on the implementable strategies in reaching the all corners of the society by using ODI (Open Distance Learning).
Multidisciplinary Institutions
NEP envisaged transforming of Higher Education Institutions into large multi-disciplinary institutions with more than 3000 or more students. In emphasized on more investments not only in terms of infrastructure but also human Resources. Given the economic status of the nation is becoming difficult to allocate funds to the institutions, hence forth the private players are permitted to establish universities. This has created dual problems to the public funded universities, one being equality other being in the access.
Initiatives of the Government
The impact of Covid-19 paved new thinking towards a paradigm shift in the education domain. A sudden shift from offline to online without making formal training of teachers and students on the usage of technology based learning and teaching. The pandemic created a huge anxiety among the students, parents as well as teachers and academic administratives. This situation further created huge gap between urban and rural sectors in terms of education. Soon after the declaration of lockdown across India, lot of apprehensions were developed how the present generation would be able to continue the education amidst the uncertainty on reopening the schools, colleges and universities.
Given the stakeholders recourse the European countries and US resolved to conduct online classes in order to protect the academic year as part of continuity of education. This has posed a big challenge to the Indian government and proposes in opening of digital initiatives in promoting digital and visual based online learning methods. The other side of the issue on online teaching learning is about preparedness of the teachers as well as students in engaging the class without possessing the pre-requisite knowledge on e-content and e-delivery. This spoke for huge gap between urban and rural teachers in terms of the capabilities in handling digital classes. This further impacted on students in terms of equipping the gadgets. This situation gave rise to the concerns of quality teaching and learning which is a new initiative without any training to the teaching community. There is huge scope for the teachers as well as students from urban segments to get benefitted by the online teaching. But for rural students and teachers, it is a herculean task due to lack of infrastructure as well as connectivity. This created a huge absence of digital equity and inclusion in providing education as urban segment took the advantages of it and situations in rural areas further deteriorated affecting the marginalized communities.
The earlier experiences of distance and open learning systems have been contributing in providing education spreading across vast geographical areas covering all corners of the country including urban and rural areas. Unlike, the formal institutions the distance programs provide education to different cross-sectional of the society irrespective of the age-limit. It has cost effective benefits like material and fees. In the same manner post pandemic situation, helped many formal institutions migrate to the methods of open and distance learning. Methods of teaching and could successfully completed to academic years. This experience provided lot of potentiality in promoting distance and online programs. Distance education and open school system are to be strengthened in improving the quality of the material provided to the students. Through the system of distance learning as flexible in organizing contact classes and conducting exams but it has been maintaining its quality as it has got its regulatory bodies in place in maintaining the quality concerns. India has rich heritage from its ancient establishments like Takshashila and Nalanda universities in transferring knowledge from the ancestors.
Engagement of Community
The National Education Policy 2020 insisted upon the overall development of a child by exposing him to the maximum available streams of knowledge which helps the individual in knowing something of everything to become a sensitive being. As part of holistic education, spreading awareness on education, culture, environment education, value based education and ethics. Apart from the main thrust, the policy document also recognizes the importance of native cultures and professions like local industries, arts, crafts and skills. This further narrow down into references like pottery, goldsmith, carpentry, cobbler can be converted into more efficient and technology embedded enabled process of making tools would help rural artisans in making a decent living. This community engagement as visualized in the policy document of NEP can be realized through distance and open learning systems. In the sense, the true prime goals of providing education and strengthening the artisans’ skills would be realized if the policymakers strive towards the central core.
Open universities have different pedagogy and methodologies which can cater to the rural students by engaging them in developing materials in a self-learning mode. Apart from these, extracurricular activities and co-curricular activities needs to be introduced in the distance learning mode as envisaged in the NEP document making it a huge point of interdisciplinary centres. Open learning systems already have established network of study centres established in all regions of the country which may be channelized in promoting the cultural studies and other arts.
Issues and Challenges in Distance and Open Learning
The first issue in distance education in India is the quality of teaching reportedly decreasing. This is because of lack of well trained teachers or the coordinators engaged in teaching are inexperienced. The second challenge is the financing of distance education gets very less allocation and more interestingly the funds collected through distance education are not fully utilized for the purpose of distance and open learning. This needs to be streamlined according to the needs of the distance learning culture. Absence of more number of contacted hours in teaching learning process of distance education is leading to poor delivery of knowledge and further leading to partial attainment of knowledge by the stakeholders. Subsequently, the products of distance mode are not able to compete with the students of formal education. This scenario is pushing the entire system of distance learning engagement to a bleak future in terms of enrolments falling down steeply.
Political Factors and Gap in Supply and Demand
Due to inconsistent implementation of certain policies in the past have negative impact on the distance education mode, administrative bodies in relation to open-learning system are lacking autonomy in allocation of funds and designing of courses. These trends are keeping the structure of open learning system confining to outdated syllabus having no contemporary relevance. Introduction and utilization of certain technological developments in the field of teaching learning process could not be adopted in the distance learning domain resulting in poor engagement in the learning process.
Lack of Research and Development Facility
In the field of distance education research and development is not promoted properly. The task of research requires established laboratory facilities and other infrastructure facilities like libraries, data centres and incubation labs. Though open learning system may not support the infrastructure required for research. But networking with the formal system by attaching certain area of studies with the research centres would help in encouraging student seeking to carry research. This facilitates the experienced people from industry in transferring the knowledge they gained in the process into research outcome. This leads to a commendable contribution from the industry to research as most of the potential experienced knowledge must not be utilized for the development of economy.
Dearness is the another major challenge for the distance education system. Due to mushrooming of private colleges and other institutes gave rise to hike in the fee structure. Correspondingly, privatization of a education as a whole, affected the distance learning systems in the sense policymakers are keen in reducing the allocations on education and suggested respective institutions to raise their own funds by hiking the different fees. Sufficient funds are to be generated through this pattern to meet the expenditure in terms of printing material and maintenance of the stock. This has spirally effect on the overall enrolments as usually the beneficiaries of these programs are from the backgrounds of poor and marginal income groups. Due to the initiative of few hike the enrolments may come down in distance education.
Suggestions in Improving the Distance Education
There is a need to bring in innovative and transformational approach in terms of content development and delivery. Number of hours of teaching to be enhanced ensuring quality teaching-learning. Focus on employable skills based course design helping the students in competing in the job market. There should be a multi-disciplinary approach in imparting knowledge which would promote professional skills required for a student in relation to the mainstream knowledge. Vocational courses are to be introduced through distance mode by linking these courses with the industries. This would attract many rural youths getting benefitted to compete with the other students. Distance and open learning fees structures need to be designed such a way a poor student should not be feel burdened in paying the fees.
Conclusion
It is pertinent to note that major portion of the Indian population are living under poverty line and not in a position to get the access to education thereby not attempting to avail education provided by the government. To provide an opportunity to the segments, open distance learning system giving a scope in fulfilling their dream to have access to education with less amount of money to be spent in this direction. India with lot human resource potential need to tap the potentials for best utilization for nation building would be realized through distance education if it is strengthened with infrastructure and proper funds. To reach and realize the objectives, there is serious strategy to relocate human resources, finances, access and equity, relevance and infrastructure with quality concerns from the policymakers making the informal learners be part of economic growth.
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