ODL and Rural Development

1. Ritimoni Bordoloi
Asst. Professor in Education
KKHSOU
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2. What do you mean by Education?
Education is prerequisite for gaining knowledge and skills
for the development of mankind.
Education is the only way to bring the welfare of the
people of a society as a whole.
Education is a life long process from which people gather
experiences necessary for a meaningful existence in
society.
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3.  India, as a developing country, has undertaken the mission to accelerate
human mobility and excellence through education.
 Although demographically India as a whole has great potential, the
growth of manpower and the level of its engagement in productive
activities are yet to be fully harnessed.
 Even within India there are considerable differences among the states
and regions in terms of employment, gender differences in all stages
of education, regional disparities in Gross Enrolment Ratio and
literacy level etc.
 But the present need of the hour is to achieve the target of inclusive
growth, the progress towards millennium development goals and
the target towards the formation of human capital.
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Introduction
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4. Cont…
Again, educated people are generally better productive
workers. They can use the capital more effectively, adopt
new technologies and learn from their mistakes.
Therefore, to make education accessible to all it is an
urgent need to disseminate information and knowledge to
the people through the various modes of education.
Open and Distance Learning (ODL) is the most viable
option for making education as accessible as possible for
all.
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5. What is Distance Education?
 It has emerged as an effective means to bring education to the door
step of those who are deprived of the educational opportunities in
the mainstream educational institutions through the conventional
mode.
 This system offers opportunities to millions of underprivileged
learners including those like the self-employed and the
housewives who desire for an enlightened and productive way of
life.
 Distance education means a mode of learning through which
education can be accessed by the people irrespective of
geographical barriers, physical existence of teachers, space, time,
age etc.
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6. Need of DE
 In the 11th Five Years Plan, the Government of India has made
a target of covering around 40% of the total number of
students under the ODL systems.
 Today, for its flexibility, this system is considered indispensible
for the 3As of education i.e.
1. at any time
2. anywhere, and
3.For any one
 The basic objective behind this system is to make the
democratization of education possible in India.
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7. ODL has emerged because of :
Institutional expansion
Limitations of the conventional system of education
Era of knowledge society
Economic liberalization
Government action towards inclusive growth
Emergence of State Open Universities for human capital
formation and utilizing economic resources in the country etc.
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8. Relevance of ODL in the Rural areas….
Already we have discussed that education is meant for the
welfare of every member in society. Therefore, equal
opportunity in accessing education is a human right for
everyone.
But there is huge gap in rural-urban disparity, gender
disparity, regional disparity in terms of accessing
education and other kinds of human rights which are
Constitutionally provided.
People living in the rural areas are underprivileged and
deprived to access the basic services as compared to the
people in the urban areas.
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9. Relevance of ODL in the Rural areas….
The people in the urban areas are comparatively more
educated, more conscious and aware of regarding their
rights and responsibilities that are needed to have a
standard of life.
Therefore, it is an urgent need to make people aware
through proper from of education and make them
functionally literate irrespective of sex, age, religion, pace
and place, regions etc.
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10. A brief profile of Rural areas….
More than 65% people in India are living in the rural
areas.
Their main source of income is agro-based, more than
70% people still takes agriculture as their livelihood.
More than 80% people are engaged in unorganised sector
for their livelihood.
Most of the people are unskilled, they are confronted by
poverty, illiteracy, high health risks, inadequate access to
productive resources and lack of credit/market knowledge
etc.
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11. Thus, people living in the rural areas are characterized by
low capital investment, low savings, and low production.
But, ideally, in a welfare state, the people in the rural areas
should enjoy the same quality of life as is enjoyed by the
people living in sub urban and urban areas.
Still, there are huge gap between rural and urban in terms
of literacy level.
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12. Census of India 2011
According to the Census of 2011, in India the urban
literacy percentage is 84.11%, whereas in the rural areas,
it is only 67.77%, with a gap of 16.34%.
In Assam, the urban literacy percentage is 88.47%, and in
the rural areas it is 69.34%, with a gap of 19.13%
This shows that there is an urgent need to remove this
disparity in order to maintain the equal standard of life of
the people in both the urban and rural areas.
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13. Education is the only way…
 To boost up the equal standard of life.
 To realize the meaning of inclusive growth.
 To develop the life skills of the people and make them
functionally literate.
 To make the people as human capital for developing the
productivity level of a nation
 Make them aware to think critically and develop their self-
esteem and self-consciousness about their life and society.
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14.  ODL is the only way to provide training and learning by covering all
sections of people in the rural areas.
 Through the use of ICT, various programmes can be made in the
forms of CD, DVD, and other forms of multimedia forms, which can
be made available for access by the common people for enhancing
their capacity and skills.
 OER can play the major role for rural literacy with the help of
Community Information Centres and other social Govt.
organisations.
 Open universities and other ODL institutions should design and
develop various professional and vocational courses for the rural
masses considering the local needs and demands.
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15. ODL is beneficial for :
 those who dropped out from schools and colleges because of economic
compulsions and are now engaging themselves in trade, business etc,
 those women who got married early and discontinued their education in
schools and colleges,
 those who work in offices and industries without completing the degrees
and diplomas required for their professions.
 those persons including housewives who simply could not carry on their
studies in the conventional system in time and now they are desirous to
pursue education,
 those who want to get further education for their better employability in
future,
 Besides, the ODL system enables the in-service persons or professionals to
enhance their professional qualifications and training while on the job.
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16. Role of KKHSOU
 This university has a Community Radio station (i.e. Gyan Tarang), which is
the first Community Radio station in the Northeast.
 This university has a prominent role in providing free education to those
learners who are in jails (Guwahati Central Jail, Abhayapuri Jail, and Jorhat
Central Jail).
 The university currently has an E-portal called e-BIDYA through which all
the resources of the University can be accessed from anywhere in the
world.
 Apart from BPP and general degree and Masters courses, various
professional and vocational courses (certificate courses in mobile repairing,
horticulture, piece culture, piggery farming, broiler farming, etc) diploma
in (hotel management, computer hardware, tourism, journalism, teachers
training programme etc.) has been launched for developing the manpower
in the society as well as utilizing the local and regional resources of the
society.
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17. Thus we have to Consider:
 What courses should be included in the ODL system for socio-
economic growth and development, particularly in the rural
areas of our State?
 Why is distance education important for mobilizing the local
resources in our society?
 What should be the role of KKHSOU to gear up the present
socio-economic condition in the state?
 What should be the role of NGOs and SHGs for promoting or
accelerating the economic condition in the State?
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