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 research, and scientific and technical institutions. Parliament has enacted laws for discharging this responsibility by way of: the University Grants Commission (UGC) for general Higher Education, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for Technical Education and other Statutory bodies for other disciplines. As regards higher education, by means of the distance mode, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Act, 1985 was enacted with the following two prime objectives, among other individuals: (a) To offer possibilities for greater education to a huge segment of population, particularly disadvantaged groups living in remote and rural places, adults, housewives and functioning persons and (b) to encourage Open University and Distance Education Systems in the educational pattern of the country and to coordinate and determine the standards in such systems.

two. The history of distance finding out or education via distance mode in India, goes way back when the universities began offering education through distance mode in the name of Correspondence Courses by way of their Directorate/College of Correspondence Education. In those days, the courses in humanities and/or in commerce had been offered by means of correspondence and taken by those, who, owing to numerous reasons, including limited quantity of seats in common courses, employability, challenges of access to the institutions of higher studying and so on., could not get themselves enrolled in the conventional `face-to-face’ mode `in-class’ programmes.

three. In the current past, the demand for larger education has enhanced enormously all through the country due to the fact of awareness about the significance of higher education, whereas the program of higher education could not accommodate this ever escalating demand.

4. Under the situations, a number 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 circumstance by providing distance education programmes in a big quantity of disciplines, ranging from humanities to engineering and management etc., and at different levels (certificate to beneath-graduate and post-graduate degrees). There is constantly a danger that some of these institutions may come to be `degree mills’ supplying sub- regular/poor top quality education, consequently eroding the credibility of degrees and other qualifications awarded by means of the distance mode. science courses in nigeria calls for a far greater 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 by means of the distance mode, for employment beneath it vide Gazette Notification No. 44 dated 1.3.1995.

six. Despite the dangers referred to in para 4 above, the significance of distance education in delivering high-quality education and instruction can not be ignored. Distance Mode of education has an essential function for:

(i)giving chance of mastering to those, who do not have direct access to face to face teaching, functioning persons, house-wives and so forth.
(ii)providing chance to operating pros to update their expertise, enabling them to switchover to new disciplines and professions and enhancing their qualifications for profession advancement.
(iii)exploiting the prospective of Facts and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the teaching and finding out process and
(iv)achieving 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 responsibility of determination and maintenance of the requirements in Greater Education, by guaranteeing coordination amongst numerous 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 today for higher education, the following policy in respect of distance studying is laid down:

(a) In order to make sure right coordination in regulation of requirements of greater education in various disciplines via numerous modes [i.e. face to face and distance] as also to assure credibility of degrees/diploma and certificates awarded by Indian Universities and other Education Institutes, an apex body, namely, National Commission for Greater Education and Investigation shall be established in line with the recommendations of Prof. Yash Pal Committee/National Knowledge Commission. A Standing Committee on Open and Distance

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

(i) Only these programmes, which do not involve substantial sensible course work, shall be permissible by means of the distance mode.

(ii) Universities / institutions shall frame ordinances / regulations / guidelines, as the case may perhaps be, spelling out the outline of the programmes to be provided through the distance mode indicating the number of needed credits, list of courses with assigned credits, reading references in addition to self studying material, hours of study, speak to classes at study centres, assignments, examination and evaluation process, grading etc.

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

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

(v) AICTE would be directed beneath section 20 (1) of AICTE Act 1987 to guarantee accreditation of the programmes in Computer system Sciences, Information and facts Technology and Management purposed to be offered by an institute/university by means of 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 requirements for a variety of programmes/courses, provided through the distance mode under their mandate,