Distance education will have no barrier of boundaries post- NEP: CN Ashwath Narayan

Bengaluru/Mysuru: "The government of Karnataka has brought in thorough changes in distance education and 'Karnataka Open University, Mysuru', will be soon made a sole authority for providing distance education courses," stated Deputy Chief Minister, Dr.C N Ashwatha Narayana, who is also the minister of higher education.

He informed this while addressing, after inaugurating the physical classes of the university through virtual participation on Monday. In the coming days, demand will increase for online and distance mode of education. The minister announced that the open university of Mysuru will be further strengthened and the technical standard of the university will be upgraded.

"An act is being already introduced which authorizes only the open university of Mysuru for providing distance education. No one should have a casual approach to this mode of education. It should be taken seriously on par with the regular mode of education," Narayana said.

Distance education will have no barrier of boundaries post- NEP: Dy CM

"Many changes have taken place in the traditional education system after the break out of the COVID 19 pandemic. The 'Learn From Anywhere' approach is gaining popularity all over and accordingly all the higher education institutions are conducting online classes. Students have the option of attending the classes either through online or physical (offline) classes but attendance is made compulsory," he told.

In the current academic year, 17,244 students have got admitted for various courses in the open university to pursue their students. This is a good number and it is appreciable.

Narayana said that down the line distance education will have no barrier of boundaries after the implementation of the National Education Policy.

"This university will have an opportunity to grow at the national level also. The university should aim for providing admission for 50,000 students by 2022 and 1 Lakh students by 2023," he said.

He also directed Dr.Vidya Shankar, Vice-Chancellor to take all the measures towards achieving this.

The minister felt that the university should emerge as an educational brand. He suggested to undertake special campaigns and out-reach the community in a larger way through visual advertisement and through effective use of social media platforms. He also opined that the university should go for MoU's with other universities, GTTC, and other educational institutions.