Distance Learning Vs E-learning
I believe only way to really learn anything is
to study its history. Also, there is no real
history of anything, only the history that was
discovered. Many parts of history are hidden
or lost, never to be recovered. Here, I will
show you a hidden piece of history which led
to birth of distance learning in India.
Until the British came to India, education in India was primarily dominated by Guru-Shisya
parampara (Teacher-student tradition). The epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata aptly
capture the education environment in such times. Guru (the teacher) imparted his knowledge
to Shisyas (the students) and was considered above God. The single biggest advantage of this
system was deep bonding between teachers and students as a Shisyas used to dedicate his 10
to 15 years serving and living with the Guru in a Gurukul. The only monetary benefit that
Guru received was the Guru Dakshina. However, only a handful of Shisyas could be educated
by the system. Mostly because the economics of the system were not good enough to be a
success. Also many parents did not want to be separated from their children for 10-15
formative years of their lives. Moreover, the education was very much dependant on the
Guru, in terms of what he wanted to teach or knew. Students/parents had no say at all as far
as the course curriculum was concerned. In most scenarios students/parents didn’t even had
any preference as they didn’t knew what was useful. This system of teaching continued pretty
much till the advent of British in India. British brought in their productized/processised
education system. (See book - Colonial Educators: The British Indian and Colonial Education
Service 1858-1983).
But was that the only way of imparting education before British. Most of us will respond with
a Yes. But I think we all are forgetting the characters of "Eklavya and Dronacharya" and their
story (Book - Acharya Drona: A human drama from the Mahabharat). Infact, the story
contains germ of the distance learning. That was the first time that the so called "Indian
education system" was "Shaken". How many realized it? Perhaps no one. Eklavya was
refused education by Guru Dronacharya. Still he managed to learn without direct contact with
guru. He acquired skills and knowledge of the level of Arjuna (the best student of
Dronacharya) by observing Dronacharya giving training to his students from a distance. He
was the first person to have got an education without direct contact with Guru. In other
words, he was first student taught via distance learning (at least in the mythology). Much has
changed since then but that was a first knock on the door of Traditional Education System. It
has got revolutionized since that time. But it gave an idea that content was the center of
education and not the teacher. Teachers presence enhances the effect of content but to put it
crudely - content is king.
Since then, the question has always been - how much distance. Now with eLearning, the
distance has been made immaterial.
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