Of the sectors that the COVID-19 pandemic affected adversely, the education sector suffered the worst setback. Although distance education had been there always as a medium of continuing education, the coronavirus has made it is important necessary than ever. Since its initiation, distance education was used to provide education remotely to those who were unable to access education under normal circumstances.
Let’s have a look at how they started in India. In 1962 Delhi University started a School of Correspondence Courses and Continuing Education as an initiative to help students attain higher education who were unable to access the conventional educational mediums. When The Education Council of India (ECOI) noticed the success that the Correspondence Course school was receiving, it immediately proposed the implementation of this course throughout the count; the guidelines of this correspondence were later formulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC). As we can see, distance education was started in India primarily to solve those challenges that formal education was not able to, like the hurdles of proximity, finance, and age.
Education in times of corona too faced similar challenges. Students could not leave home, a lot of people had to face financial distress. Distance education emerged as a great source of education in such miserable times in such miserable times. Students could continue their education despite demographic constraints. The inclusion of technology in the distance education pedagogy has further augments the benefits of distance education. Here are some ways distance education is beneficial for students:
The market is dynamic and there if you do not upgrade yourself with the changing market needs, you will be out of the race. Distance education provides professionals and students to upgrade even when institutions are closed owing to the spread of a pandemic.
It is a general notion that professionals' course via distance education is not equally valued, however, this fact is a complete myth as distance education are authenticated by UGC. A degree if it is awarded by an institution that is recognized by UGC, it is equivalent to any regular course.
The pandemic has scourged many with financial insecurity, at times making it difficult to continue the regular courses. Distance courses are comparatively cost-efficient than regular courses and we have already explained that it is equally valued like regular courses.
We all know that formal courses have many restraints, you need to be within the permissible age limit, there cannot be any gaps in the academic years. But in the challenging times of the pandemic crisis, some might have to drop out of their regular classes due to travel constraints or unavailability of resources. But distance courses are likely to be bound by such constraints. The highly experienced faculty conducts interactive classes for the ease of students. Furthermore, resources and recordings can always be accessed by the students providing everyone a flexible and adaptable learning environment.
Learning is a continuous process and there should be nothing that stands in its way. Quoting Einstein “Once you stop learning, you start dying”
Distance education provides you every scope of continuing your learning process, no matter what your circumstances are.
