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‘No Substitute For Hands-On Skills’

Despite the increased pitch for online education in India, regulator AICTE is moving cautiously.

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‘No Substitute For Hands-On Skills’
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Despite the increased pitch for online education in India, regulator All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is moving cautiously. AICTE chairman S.S. Mantha will announce guidelines for online education this month. Excerpts from an e-mail interview with Arindam Mukherjee

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On the prospects of online education in India: Traditionally, only correspondence programmes have been in vogue in India, mostly in non-technical courses. This is changing with a massive infrastructure built around Infor­mation and Communication Tech­nology (ICT). However, with new interventions in ICT, AICTE is relooking at the distance paradigm in technical education. Two points of caution: the last mile problem of implementing ICT and reaching students with quality content at their place and the non-negotiable requirement of conduct of workshops, labs, etc only in a face-to-face mode of learning.

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On regulation: AICTE is working on regulations to provide technical courses in a blended mode, which would be issued by June-end. However, a calibra­ted approach to quality will be ensured.

On the dangers: This is a good opp­ortunity that can be leveraged to reach the unreached. But there’s always a danger that in spite of close monitoring, some institutions may churn out degrees and diplomas in an assembly-line mode, and offer pate­ntly inferior quality education. This can affect the credibility of the system.

On EdX, launched by Harvard and MIT last year: They are probably the best courses, from the best professors, and best schools. However, we need to pilot this effort through the National Vocational Education Quali­fi­ca­tion Framework acknow­ledging that there is no substitute for hands-on skills to be delivered in a face-to-face mode.

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On partnerships: The public infrastructure should be a government effort as it is now, and content generation and effective delivery mechanisms need to be a partnership between public and private players.

On the best model for India: We are in the process of laying out the operational deta­ils, the rulebook and will also specify the logistics to offer blended learning programmes. Good professors and technology are available today. However, teaching is a performing art. A teacher in a synchronous mode gauges his students, retrofits his abilities to suit the needy and the aspiration-driven, and is constantly challenged to adjust to their needs. Technology can be used as a value-added proposition to imp­rove delivery, not as a tool to replace the cardinal points. A pacemaker can improve the heartbeat but cannot replace the heart.

On concerns about effectiveness: Research shows that students get distracted in an average of 15 minutes, regardless of the quality of eLearning content. We need technology in content and delivery but we also have to be careful that we don’t, over a period of time, end up reinventing the wheel of edu­cation and its delivery.

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