Last week, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) stiffened the noose around unregulated distance-learning courses operated across in the country. In a circular sent to the state governments, the AICTE debarred institutes from offering BE, B.Tech, Architecture, Town Planning, Pharmacy, Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Applied Arts and Craft and Post-Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) courses through distance-learning.

“It is an AICTE policy to not recognise the qualifications acquired through distance mode at diploma, bachelor’s and master’s level in these fields. It now has a policy to consider only MBA and MCA through distance mode,” the circular noted. The rule shall come into force starting from next year.

The rule seems slightly confusing, but we’ll make sense of it for you. There are two main implications of this rule.

First, if you have a non-approved distance-education degree (Bachelor’s) in the above subjects, then you do not qualify for admission into any UGC or AICTE-approved course, including the various fulltime PGDM courses offered by AICTE-approved business schools or the fulltime MBA courses offered by recognized universities of India.

Second, if you have a non-approved distance-education degree (Bachelor’s or Master’s) in the above subjects,then you do not qualify for a job in any government department or agency.

How do you know if a distance-education course is non-approved? The AICTE, even on its website has alerted students pursuing or aspiring to pursue technical education courses through distance-education mode to first check if the course is approved by all three of the AICTE, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Distance Education Council (DEC) of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). So in effect, an ‘approved’ distance-education degree in a technical course would be one which has the stamp of each of AICTE, UGC and DEC-IGNOU.

Which essentially means that all distance-education technical courses run by the government, including by IGNOU and various other open universities in India’s states are exempt from this rule. Their degrees will get you government jobs as well as the eligibility to study an AICTE-approved degree.

AICTE’s Joint Director, Regional Office (Western), Dr Dayanand Meshram explained, “If you roamed Mumbai streets, like in other cities, you will see many institutes offering a variety of distance-learning courses. These and other such which have come up all over the country do not adhere to the prescribed standards and the education provided is below par. All that the circular states is that if you enroll into a (distance-education) college that is not approved, you will not be able to avail of a government job or enroll in a higher education course which is approved by the AICTE . If a private company employs such students, we cannot have a say in that. This circular is to safeguard against the many institutes that make claims of providing good education through distance but don’t do so.”

The same reasoning was given by Dr PK Sahu, Regional Officer (Western), AICTE. “How does one possibly learn to be a doctor or engineer through distance-learning? Can you tell a person who has never studied MBBS in a classroom to conduct a surgery on a patient? Or can you tell an engineer who has never attended a practical class to work on a machine. Many of the distance-learning courses that are in practise these days do not follow any norms. This circular is to keep a check on students who undertake courses from such institutes and give a warning that no government office will employ such students.”

Ironically, quite a few government universities including the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad and the IGNOU are offering courses through distance mode in BTech and engineering. To this, Dr Sahu said that the courses being offered by such state unverisities did not involve much lab work. “Basically, if you want to do a distance-learning programme, make sure the institute is approved by the government.”

Like Dr Meshram, Dr Sahu also clarified that while the government will not entertain students of such distance-learning institutes while recruiting, the students are free to take up a job in any private firm. “If an employer is fine with the skills that a correspondence-learning student displays, then the government will not interfere in his or her recruitment.”

However this diktat has people in higher education divided, with some institutes welcoming the move, and others shunning it.

Director of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) Dr Stephen D’Silva is quite for the change, at least for those students wishing to pursue an MBA thereafter. He argues that the move is in the right direction as students who study in fulltime classes must be given a preference to do an MBA and other higher degrees. “Once the quota is filled with regular students, then those educated through the distance-learning mode can and should be accommodated.”

Dr Rishabha Nayyar, director of Genesis Institute of Business Management, Pune agrees.“ You don’t get the same experience when you are learning through distance-education. Classroom learning has an edge. So many universities run distance-learning programs which are bad and far below standards. Many of the students who pass out from such institutes are poor in form.”

Those for the circular also add that students who opt for distance-learning may also be those not too serious about education. Sometimes students who are weak or do not want to undertake the rigors of daily classes opt for the distance mode, thereby lowering the overall touchstone of the system.

Dr N Ravichandran, Director of Indian Institute of Management, Indore said, “This circular might harm the chances of those who genuinely want to study but have to opt for distance education for economic reasons. Is it right then to debar such a student from pursuing his goal?”.

The lobby against the issuance of such a circular however believes that such a move would be detrimental to the education system in that it will breed a new caste system. Professor MS Pillai of Pune’s Sadhana Center for Management and Leadership Development (SCMLD) argued that as it is the gross enrolment ratio in India wass well below par. A move of this sort would make the situation worse. “India’s gross enrolment ratio is just in the region of 11% and internationally it is 60-75%. The government is talking about increasing this ratio to 20%. How will this ever be achieved with this kind of a move which bars a huge section of students from going for further studies?” asked Prof Pillai.

The professor added that the shift would be harsh on hundreds of students who lived in remote areas of the country and were not lucky enough to be educated in classrooms. Prof Pillai also argued that attendance levels in Indian fulltime courses averaged around 30-40% and often one teacher taught 200 students at once. “How then does that kind of teaching in a classroom become better than distance-learning? At least one can say that distance education students are self-motivated to study and are undertaking studies in distance-learning because they want to study. This is anytime better than students who enroll in a regular college but do not attend classes,” argued Prof Pillai.