Select universities soon to offer non-technical courses online

The union government on Tuesday announced its decision to allow some institution to offer an online course to strengthen the gross enrolment ratio of the country.

Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javdekar, while chairing the 65th Central Advisory Board of Education, announced that the government is working out regulations to allow certain universities to offer online distance learning courses.

The courses, however, will be non-technical in nature which means that one will not be able to pursue engineering or medical

courses via this mode.

An educational institution with a National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grade of A+ and A++, or with a score of 3.26 out of four, will be allowed to offer online courses under this mechanism.

“The UGC will approve their course structure. There will be online lectures, tutorials and also a weekly online discussion forum where professors will answer queries of the enrolled candidates,” Javadekar said, according to an Indian Express report. “There will be an online examination in six months or one year. They will be granted certificates if they pass.”

Javadekar further told newspersons this will improve the gross enrolment ratio from 25.2 to 30 per cent in the next five years in line with Modi government’s target.

However, the scheme will face several challenges one being the apprehension that this will hamper the quality of education which is already going through criticism. The online mode will also be in direct conflict with the distance education mode and evaluation of students wi8ll also be a challenge, Livemint reported.