EVOLUTION OF OPEN EDUCATION - THE INDIAN SCENE
Education and Devel- 3.01 As pointed out by the Education Commission (1964-
opment 66), in its Report significantly entitled Education and Develop-
ment, education being the main stimulator of development, does
not end with schooling and that it has to be a life- long process
in order to enable the individual to understand the rapidly
changing world of work and the growing complexities of hu-
man affairs. The Commission, however, noted that in India
masses of people are without schooling, even without effective
literacy, numeracy and understanding of changing technology.
Besides, many of those who have had the opportunity for
schooling, partly or fully, have found their conventional
courses irrelevant to developmental needs. A solid foundation
for life-long learning provided through literacy, numeracy and
`techniracy'* could lead the learners towards capabilities for
independent learning and earning. This should be the trend,
according to the Commission, in universalisation of elementary
education, adult education and further education. From this
angle, the Commission indicated that the school would have to
reach out to the entire local community and function as a
`Community Learning Centre', a `people's school'. To fulfil
Such a role, it would go beyond educating children, disseminate
to the community all essential information, and promote voca-
tional education along with social service for integrating the
total community into a dynamic unit of development. We need
to proceed towards this vision of the Commission, in a planned
manner, in relation to the `area development planning' strategy
of the 8th Plan, through selection of schools having the right
ethos and infrastructure, supported by the Education Complex
visualized by the Commission.
A system of continuing education could be designed
by making such schools serve as `contact centres' to cater to
the needs of different groups of learners, namely, those who
are able to study part-time and those who are necessarily re-
quired to study at home at hours convenient to them, through
an Open Learning System. Provision of a variety of continu-
ation courses and teaching-learning arrangements was recom-
mended by the Commission through the school system as well
as institutions like the Krishi Vigyan Kendras and Community
Polytechnics catering to the needs of productive skill-develop-
ment in the rural areas. Such `open-door' facilities, outside the
regular working hours, are expected to provide flexible, work-
*Techniracy' is a term coined by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan.
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related learning oportunities. These could as well
form constituent parts of the Education Complex give the lead
in organising ad-hoc short courses for youth, adult and even
school-pupils. It may be necessary to give further considera-
tion to such vocational centres in order to form an integrated
Education Complex serving the goal of `Education and Devel-
opment.'
3.02 The Education Commission, stressing its develop-
mental view, had looked upon the education system as a flex-
ible and dynamic process, responding to the inter-dependant
needs of the learners and their society. A substantial expansion
of `part-time' and `own-time' courses, at all levels of educa-
tion, covering academic and vocational as well as cultural
studies, could be so planned as to bring within their fold a
sizeable proportion of students at the secondary and higher
education levels. The National Policy on Education has
adopted or adapted many such forward- looking recommenda-
tions of the Education Commission.
3.03 Many of the recommendations of the Education
Commission were filled with insight into the development proc-
esses and the kind of manpower required to be produced by
education for making India a dynamic , forward-looking, eco-
nomically productive and socially progressive nation. Some of
these recommendations were so much ahead of their times that
they were not even understood and, consequently, overlooked.
This is not Surprising. The conflict between convention and
innovation is an age-old phenomenon.
Open Education in 3.04 The conventional attraction for degrees and diplomas
Universities and the desire of many a secondary certificate holder to ac-
quire further qualifications while in employment or working for
employment led to the demand and provision of `external'
degree courses. Correspondence courses followed, as an im-
provement. The University Grants Commission formulated
guidelines for correspondence courses in Indian Universities.
A few Universities relaxed formal qualifications for entrants to
correspondence courses. By 1989-90, correspondence courses
in various disciplines had been instituted by 38 Universities, at
the undergraduate, post-graduate and diploma/certificate levels.
3.05 The first Open University in the country was estab-
lished in Andhra Pradesh in 1982, followed by the estab-
lishment of the Indira Gandhi National Open University in
1985. More Open Universities got established thereafter, viz.
Kota (1987), Nalanda (1987), and YC Maharashtra Open Uni-
versity, Nashik (1989), Nearly five lakh students are at present
enrolled in open and correspondence systems. This constitutes
12% of a total enrolment of about 42 lakhs in higher education.
Open universities account for about one fourth of the non-insti-
tutional enrolment in higher education, the remaining being in
traditional correspondence courses.
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Open School 3.06 In the early 1950's, school- broadcasts began to sup-
plement the regular curriculum offered by schools and intro-
duced the idea of learning outside the class-room. Television
has been used for curriculum enrichment and instructional pur-
poses, right since its introduction in 1959. In 1975-76, Govern-
ment launched the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment
(SITE) exposing 2330 villages in 20 districts of six States (And-
hra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Orissa, Rajasthan and Madhya
Pradesh ) to specially pre-recorded TV programmes directly
transmitted via the ATS-6 Satellite. The TV lessons were sup-
ported by instructors. Thus, a new dimension was added to the
use of electronic media for teaching-learning. The significance
of the experiment lies in two factors, viz. (a) education began
to cover even illiterate adults and schooling got dissociated
from childhood, and (b) India became the first large country to
make use of direct receiving sets (DRS). In 1984, the Indian
National Satellite (INSAT) Programme was launched for the
age group 6 to 8 and 9 to 11 on three days per week, in
selected primary school-clusters of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa and UP. For production of soft-
ware, State Institutes of Educational Technology (SIET),have
been established in these States. The Central Institute of Edu-
cational Technology (CIET) guides their work. This pro-
gramme, when evaluated showed shortcomings such as custody
and maintenance of TV sets, inadequate dovetailing of lessons
with class- room teaching, etc. Where the TV sets have func-
tioned well, a positive impact has been evident.
The Open School is about to become a well- organ-
ized movement, especially at the secondary level. The Confer-
ence of the Boards of Secondary Education had recommended
in 1965, introduction of correspondence courses for out-of-
school youth and women. The objective was to help improve
the performance of privately appearing candidates, in the cer-
tificate Examinations. The Board of Secondary Education,
Madhya Pradesh, was the first to start correspondence courses
for Intermediate students, in 1965. This was followed by the
Secondary Boards in Delhi, Rajasthan, Orissa, UP and Tamil
Nadu. By 1985, about one lakh students were enrolled at
various grade levels, under this programme.
National Open School 3.07 The Open School, established under the Central
Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi, in 1979 went sev-
eral steps ahead of correspondence education. It began open
secondary courses in 1981-82 and higher secondary courses in
1988. In 1989, the Open School was converted into National
Open School. In 1990, it became its own certifying and exam-
ining body. It has on its rolls about 1.5 lakh students.
3.08 The number of students enrolled at the secondary
and higher secondary stages in correspondence/open education
is about 1 % of the reported enrolment at these stages. The
trend shows that among those enrolled in Open School,girls
predominate. The need to offer open education facilities at the
secondary stage has received increasing recognition. But infor-
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mation about the possibilities of coverage and quality of open
secondary education has not yet fully reached those sections of
society where it is most neded. Further course offerings are
being designed by the National Open School. Boards of Secon-
dary Education that have recently decided to adopt the NOS
model as against traditional correspondence courses, have be-
gun preparations to launch their programmes in collaboration
with NOS and one another, thus building a participatory net-
work.
3.09 In teacher training, the NCERT and its Regional
Colleges have been using self-learning packages for quite some
time. More recently, as part of the programme of Mass Orien-
tation of School Teachers, TV programmes helped supplement
face-to-face instruction for in-service training.
Position on the Eve of 3.10 The approach of NPE, 1986, and the Eighth Plan
Eighth Plan Working Groups to the OLS may be seen from the ex-
tracts given in Annexure III: Policy Precursors of OLS. Open
Learning receives support both in the National Policy on Edu-
cation (1986) and the approach to education in the 8th Plan.
The need to organize educational activities in a flexible manner
has been recognized for meeting the challenge of preparing
human resources capable of handling the multi-faceted socio-
economic tasks thrown up by unforeseen worldwide changes in
all spheres of life.
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