Karnataka - Mysore   

‘Technology can make distance learning more relevant to society’

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

ACHIEVERS’ CLUB: Students of KSOU who won gold medals in different streams, at the convocation held in Mysore on Friday.

MYSORE: N. Rajashekaran Pillai, Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), said that open and distance learning should have a major role in capacity building rather than just awarding degrees.

Delivering the eighth annual convocation address of the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) here on Friday, Prof. Pillai pointed out that conventional teaching-learning method could not cope with the scale of educational challenges and this called for technologies of different kinds to be harnessed to supplement the conventional teaching and learning process.

He said open universities should provide an all-round learning support system for which there was a need to promote powerful models for applying technology for various purposes and only by appropriate and innovative use of technologies could the challenges of scaling up the educational challenges be addressed.

Commenting on the development of distance education, Prof. Pilllai said it accounted for 24 per cent of the university students and the Government aimed to raise this to 40 per cent.

About distance learning being made more relevant, he said any successful education programme had to take into account the needs of the intended learner and one had to find out what type of knowledge was required for the country’s growth.

“We have to look at the market requirements, service sectors and to probe the agricultural sector, analyse the skills and knowledge we provide and ascertain the gaps and fill it by creating a mechanism for providing additional skill. Hence the distance education and learning system have to play a major role in capacity building rather than just awarding degree,” said Prof. Pillai.

Pointing out at the challenges facing the higher education system, Prof. Pillai said one-third of India’s population was illiterate. He said only 12 per cent of children in the school-going age completed 10th standard and only 10 per cent of the students in the university-eligible age group got enrolled in universities and colleges.

These educational gaps were characteristic features of all developing countries and only appropriate and innovative use of technologies could help address these issues, said Prof. Pillai.

He said there was still a stigma attached to distance learning that it was for those who were not capable of going to the regular institution. But with satellite and online classes, interaction should become the norm and technology-led learning would help bridge the digital divide and “education for technology and technology for education” should be the goal, he said.

At the eighth convocation of the KSOU, 6,886 graduates and postgraduates had qualified to receive their degrees. Of these, 700 had qualified to receive it in person while the rest would receive the degree in absentia. In the humanities stream, 789 women and 430 men qualified for the postgraduate degrees while in social sciences 711 women and 524 women qualified for the same.

In commerce and management stream 227 and 105 men completed the course while the KSOU awarded Ph.D. to 14 candidates.

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