Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

`National law on education needed'

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, MARCH 22. A national law on education should be framed in order to specify the nature of the organisations that can operate on Indian soil as foreign education providers, the director, Consortium of Educational Communication (CEC), G.D.Sharma, said here recently.

Prof. Sharma, who was at the PSG College of Arts and Science to participate in a national seminar on autonomy, said the educational institutions in the country were "not wrong" in their apprehensions regarding the entry of foreign institutions offering educational courses.

"We have to specify when it comes to trade in education. Earlier there was no situation like this. Of course, we are not trying to stop people from coming to the country but are only trying to regulate the private providers. Regulation should ensure a degree of quality that is appropriate to the system, so that students get a fair deal," he said. The consortium he headed was an inter-university centre of the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Electronic Media. Dr. Sharma was also the Chief Editor of `CEC Television News', a monthly newsletter on the 24-hour Higher Education Channel that went on air on January 26 this year.

"India does not have to depend on knowledgeware from other countries and the quality of education is improving. However, the challenge is to make education widely available and make the system more flexible. Students should be allowed to accumulate course credits until they get the required number for course completion," he said.

"We must forget the old ways of functioning in order to be competitive, and develop as a nation. Infrastructure must be used to the maximum extent, by keeping laboratories and computer systems open round-the-clock so that students can work throughout the night. It is like keeping a restaurant open all night. We can expand the scope of universities and work three shifts," he observed.

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