International Higher Education, Winter 2005

Myths and Realities of Distance Education in India

A. Gnanam and Antony Stella
A. Gnanam is former chair of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council. Address: 41, III Cross, Kaveri Nagar, Pondicherry 645010, India. E-mail: gnanama32@yahoo.com. Antony Stella is adviser of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). E-mail: naac@bir.vsnl.net.in.

The emergence of ICT (information and communications technology) in recent years has led to the concept of open and distance learning (ODL) as the panacea for the growth, cost reduction, and quality of higher education in India. Some people even seem to imagine that the new systems will replace traditional campus-based education. A closer look at the purpose, clientele, costing, potential, and limitations of the technology should resolve the myths and realities concerning distance education.

Myth 1: ODL Is the Only Way to Expand Higher Education in Developing Countries
It should be noted that ODL and the traditional system differ in purpose and origin. Recognition of education’s essential role in enhancing the citizenry has resulted in the development of a massive formal educational system. Young people devote almost one-fourth of their lives to full-time formal education, and the state and society are committed to providing traditional formal education. Formal education promotes the academic skills and competencies that are essential for further learning. ODL, however, cannot help to provide such serious training for the relevant age group.

In India, distance learning (DL) evolved to cater to adults who were either left out of or dropped out of the formal system. ODL is just a variation of DL that offers greater flexibility, without an age limit or qualifying prerequisites. The demand for flexible forms of continuing education resulted from the changing contexts of rapid knowledge expansion and globalization. ODL thus functions as a parallel stream to the traditional universities. Purely distance education institutions appeared later.

Myth 2: ODL Is Less Expensive Than Campus Learning
The proponents of ODL assume that it has a larger potential reach through ICT than classrooms and will be cheaper. No authentic costing has yet been done for ICT-based ODL. Any well-designed ICT-based education should cost more as all the facilities are cost intensive, both for establishment and maintenance. Besides, the hardware will quickly become obsolete and the expense of frequent renewal will be prohibitive. Students may also need their own computers. Additional requirements include widespread Internet connectivity and broadband capacity—factors that depend on the national infrastructure. The system will need the support of technical personnel as well as specially trained academics. In a country like India, ICT-based ODL would require adequate support facilities at hundreds of study centers since not all distance learners could afford to have personal high-tech environments. It is unrealistic to expect the government to offer subsidies for adult learners. All the 120 ODL units in the country are self-supporting, except for the centrally funded Indira Gandhi National Open University.

Myth 3: ODL Should Be Subsidized Like Traditional Formal Learning
The learner profile clearly indicates that ODL predominantly serves employed and well-established adults who want to update their skills and qualifications for career development. Such a clientele can certainly afford to pay for their further learning. It is estimated that adult learners in many countries outnumber the regular student age cohort. Subsidizing the adult learners would imply a major shift in the funding priorities of the government. Additional public subsidies would be difficult to come by in a country like India that has shrinking resources and that barely provides access to 6 percent of the relevant age group. Supporting distance education cannot occur at the expense of educating the relevant age group.

Myth 4: Campus-based Formal Education Will Be Replaced by ODL
This can never happen. There is no evidence of any fresh secondary school graduates enrolling in ODL anywhere in the world. The educational benefits of human intellectual interaction are undisputed, especially for fresh high school graduates. Good teaching is aural, visual, animated, and interactive. On-line courses today are by and large textual, no matter how much ICT is integrated into them. Competent literacy and the related cognitive skills are essential for learning through on-line lessons. The profile of the normal age groups in India that attend school and undergraduate education does not indicate any such potential for independent on-line learning.

Myth 5: ODL Is Highly Flexible in Contrast to Rigid Campus Education
Campus-based formal education intended for full-time young students should be well structured, selective in terms of curriculum and intensive enough to complete the necessary learning within a stipulated time frame. Public funding of education cannot support slow-paced learning without any time limit. Flexibility in the choice of courses is essential, and the choice-based credit system (“cafeteria model”) is gaining ground in the formal system.

Realities: Upholding the Relevance of Distance Education
As long as the educated population base continues to increase due to globalization of the economy and other trends, the education market of adult learners will continue to expand in India as well. But, the 20th-century form of ODL that catered to people who were excluded from or dropped out of the mainstream will need to undergo radical change to remain relevant in the 21st century. Very little research is under way to help bring about such radical changes. Currently, many of the initiatives in ODL are chosen based on their novelty rather than their relevance.

The convergence between distance and campus-based education is already occurring. When technology is integrated into formal education and used as the “distributed education” for both on- and off-campus students, the distinction between the two types of learning gets blurred. This appears to be the general intention of the Indian University Grants Commission in committing enormous funds for ICT to promote distributed education in the traditional universities. That makes one wonder how the ODL providers like the national and state open universities are going to uphold their relevance and the distinct purposes they wish to pursue.

(This article is based on “Myths and Realities of Distance Education,” published in University News, Vol. 42, no. 21 by the authors.)