12 years of distance learning invalid

Today, online distance learning, virtual classrooms have found an enthusiastic audience in many parts of the world. The advantages that this system gives are tremendous. The ability to earn a degree and also pursue a job at the same time has improved the career prospects for many people, who would not otherwise be able to afford an education. And since one isn’t limited by one’s location, it’s possible for people to “go the distance” looking for a good course administered by an excellent faculty.

Many people need to work and support themselves for an education and the best deal they have is to go for a distance course.

While lunching with a friend in the university campus a couple of weeks ago, I met her brother and got around to talking about his work and his education. He’d finished his graduation through the distance mode and was working in a private bank. But it seems next week he is shifting base to Delhi because he plans to join a coaching institute and write the central banking exams.

Why am I telling you about him? I remembered him when I read this story in Times of India this morning:

Several lakh degree certificates awarded by the University of Madras and a few other state universities through the distance education programme for over 12 years are not valid for getting employment in Central government departments.

I hope he didn’t go to one of these universities. But there are thousands of people who did—in a long span of 12 long years. I find it shocking that universities could be irresponsible enough to offer courses they were not authorized to offer (weren’t they supposed to be the very foundation of our educational system?) and I am amazed that for 12 years, this fraud was allowed to continue: universities collected their fees, printed out stacks of certificates, and the only ones who lost anything (precious hours of study at night, many years of effort and hope) are the students. It just goes to show how devious and negligent some people can be.

Two solutions come to mind:

All the degrees issued in this manner should be recognized and the people who were systematically deceived should now be allowed to write central Government exams (as long as they meet other conditions, of course).

The people who were involved in committing this fraud as well as the people who were supposed to put an end to it but did not should be required to give up their own citations or increments—effective from 12 years ago.