Prime Minister @narendra modi , Sir, SAAB KI VAKAS - can only be achieved through proliferation education , vis a vis boundary less distance education
The importance of knowledge and learning has been recognized since the beginning of time. Plato wrote: “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.”
But it was really the Nobel winning economists that put the argument of education as investment. T.W. Schultz argued that investment in education explains growth and Gary Becker gave us the Human Capital Theory.
In a nutshell, the Human Capital Theory posits that investing in education has a payoff in terms of higher wages. Moreover, the theory and empirical estimates are backed up by current science, as explained by James Heckman.
Today, with Covid19 , this World Order particularly the domain of education is undergoing a vast transformation.
While all the Governments are understandably desperate for anything that would forestall the deaths, closures and quarantines resulting from COVID-19. But combating this disease demands a vaccine that is safe and potent. The fatality rate is low (3.4% by the World Health Organization’s latest estimate, although this is highly uncertain), yet transmission rates are high and the spread is difficult to track. That means many people — perhaps the majority in hotspots — would need to be vaccinated to stop the spread and prevent deaths. By contrast, Ebola virus has very high fatality rates (averaging around 50%, but varying from 25% to 90%), yet is less contagious, so vaccination can be more targeted.
Decades ago, vaccines developed against another coronavirus, feline infectious peritonitis virus, increased cats’ risk of developing the disease caused by the virus (T. Takano et al. J. Vet. Med. Sci. 81, 911–915; 2019). Similar phenomena have been seen in animal studies for other viruses, including the coronavirus that causes SARS (Y. W. Kam et al. Vaccine 25, 729–740; 2007).This makes mandatory that , regulators must continue to require that vaccine developers check for potentially harmful responses in animal studies. Further , The virus behind COVID-19 might well mutate in ways that would make previously effective vaccines and antivirals useless. Therefore, any regulatory agency considering ways to accelerate treatments into testing should also weigh up how likely these drugs are to work beyond this particular coronavirus. This makes the entire process time consuming ,which interalia puts a coma on regular classroom coaching
But education is the backbone of any Nation , and as it has to reach every one , when he or she cannot reach the door of the Institution for any reason whatsoever and this gives birth to the LEGITIMATE DEMAND of RESTRUCTURING & REVAMPING - the concept of Distance education .
Most surprisingly , it has been observed that the UGC has clearly overstepped its jurisdiction , and for which instant matter needs "REVISION " from Ministry of HRD , Government of India .
Clause (5) of Article 15 of the Constitution read as follows:-
Nothing in this article or in sub – clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions.
The constitutional validity of clause (5) of Article 15 of the Constitution insofar as it enables the State to make special provisions relating to admission to educational institutions of the State and educational institution aided by the State was considered by a Constitution Bench of this Court in Ashoka Kumar Thakur v. Union of India & Ors. [(2008) 6 SCC 1] and the Constitution Bench held in the aforesaid case that clause (5) of Article 15 is valid and does not violate the “basic structure” of the Constitution.
Some persons of the UGC for obvious reasons, have started inappropriately quoting a Supreme Court judgment - (Prof Yashpal’s case) where the Supreme Court has never pronounced any judgment debarring any other University from conducting distance education where its Statue has empowered such and which has been approved by the UGC as well as by the Open University Act at that point of time.
It is noteworthy to observe – that the UGC is trying too hard to remake the judgment itself of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. While Supreme Court in WP (Civi) No 19 of 2004 in Prof. Yashpal and Anr vs State of Chhattisgarh & Ors the instant judgment in Para 41 – has only referred the view of the discussion of Ld Advocate Dhawan, UGC has most high handedly asked Universities, which are even having their Acts permitting them for having jurisdiction outside the State, to stop their operation. The relevant Para of the said Judgment on which UGC is shooting off letters are-
Para No 41 – wherein it was observed that –
Dr. Dhawan has also drawn the attention of the Court to certain other provisions of the Act which have effect outside the State of Chhattisgarh and thereby give the State enactment an extra territorial operation. Section 2(f) of the amended Act defines ‘off – campus centre’ which means a centre of the University established by it outside the main campus (within or outside the State) operated and maintained as its constituent unit having the university’s complement of facilities, faculty and staff. Section 2(g) defines “off – shore campus “ and it means a campus of the university established by it outside the country, operated and maintained as its constituents unit, having the university’s complement of facilities, faculty and staff. Section 3(7) says that the object of the University shall be to establish main campus in Chhattisgarh and to have the study centres at different places in India and other countries. In view of Article 245 (1) of the Constitution, Parliament alone is competent to make laws for the whole or any part of the territory of India and the legislature of a State may take laws for the whole or any part of the State. The impugned Act which specifically makes a provision enabling a University to have an off – campus centre outside the State is clearly beyond the legislative competence of the Chhattisgarh legislature.
When the citizens are busy to earn a square meal a day , it is duty of the Government to ensure that Education reaches each and every household in a manner which is appropriate to each and every situation .
Hence , all Universities which were having distance education should be again allowed to have distance education and the jurisdiction of such University must be read with the parental Act or with amendments made thereof .
By restricting Universities from reaching out to the people , today the matrix of education has stooped to an all time low .
People are facing genuine problems across India .All Universities are not having the same courses or medium of instruction, this is hurting the most For example a person stationed in New Delhi for a Job cannot do a course on Rabindranath Tagore from Rabindra Bharati University today ;
Similarly a Tamilian who is stationed in North East India cannot upgrade himself or herself with a newer and effective course from an University in Tamil Nadu offering a a particular course .This senseless act of UGC is causing a Quality fall in Human value !
Distance education is not a new concept. In the late 1800s, at the University of Chicago, the first major correspondence program in the United States was established in which the teacher and learner were at different locations. Before that time, particularly in preindustrial Europe, education had been available primarily to males in higher levels of society. The most effective form of instruction in those days was to bring students together in one place and one time to learn from one of the masters. That form of traditional educational remains the dominant model of learning today. The early efforts of educators like William Rainey Harper in 1890 to establish alternatives were laughed at. Correspondence study, which was designed to provide educational opportunities for those who were not among the elite and who could not afford full-time residence at an educational institution, was looked down on as inferior education. Many educators regarded correspondence courses as simply business operations. Correspondence education offended the elitist and extremely undemocratic educational system that characterized the early years in this country (Pittman, 1991). Indeed, many correspondence courses were viewed as simply poor excuses for the real thing. However, the need to provide equal access to educational opportunities has always been part of our democratic ideals, so correspondence study took a new turn.
As radio developed during the First World War and television in the 1950s instruction outside of the traditional classroom had suddenly found new delivery systems. There are many examples of how early radio and television were used in schools to deliver instruction at a distance. Wisconsin's School of the Air was an early effort, in the 1920s, to affirm that the boundaries of the school were the boundaries of the state. More recently, audio and computer teleconferencing have influenced the delivery of instruction in public schools, higher education, the military, business, and industry. Following the establishment of the Open University in Britain in 1970, and Charles Wedemeyer's innovative uses of media in 1986 at the University of Wisconsin, correspondence study began to use developing technologies to provide more effective distance education.
In most countries in the two books, distance education is an important part of higher education enrolments and provision. On the enrolment side, in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and the United States nearly one fifth or more of all higher education students are taking some online or distance education courses and programs. In the United States, the only growth in higher education enrolments is due to growth in distance education enrolments. On the provision side, distance education is not only being offered by open access, or low-selectivity institutions. In Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Russia, South Korea the United Kingdom and the United States, high profile institutions are offering distance education. They are providing distance education not only for adult learners, but for younger conventional higher education students wanting flexibility. Both from a student and institutional perspective, distance education is increasingly seen as part of higher education.
Apex Court has never put a blanket ban on “Open University and Distance Education” – nor this phrase has ever been referred to by any the Hon’ble Apex Court in the said judgment as it is a completely different subject matter.
There is nothing to worry about the quality of distance education programs. They are often required by government policies or boards to review the quality of programs and are responding to these reviews and regulations by changing administration, design, teaching and support. In the United Kingdom, the Open University has always been proactive about addressing quality issues. Historically, the guidelines for good practice and using quality audits did not apply to distance education. The Open University adapted the standard guidelines anyway and applied them to distance education courses. They recognized that distance education providers often have to do twice the work to get half the acknowledgement. This proactive approach is well received by funding bodies and regulators. Now, the Quality Assurance Agency assures standards and quality for all higher education in the United Kingdom, including distance education. The use of continually new types of information and communications technologies suggest there is always room for distance education institutions to be proactive in their approach to providing and assuring quality programs and courses. Some major developments that have taken place, Worldwide in the sphere of Distance Education - are that 1) Existing institutions a have increased their online and distance education offering 2) New institutions are offering online and distance education apart from general classroom education 3) Distance education has become an integral part of higher education system - with equivalent validity 4) Distance Education is being accepted as mainstream education in developed countries- and i am quite optimistic that the New Government under narendra Modiji - must - do all that is required including removal and abolishing the UGC -( which was the main contestant / subject matter in the case ) to make Distance education boundaryless and meaningful across the length and breadth of the Nation ( Sab ki saath - sab ki Vikaas is really needed in this sector )
Dr Gautam Ghosh
www.drgautamghosh.com
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