NEW DELHI: The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry plans to create an independent distance education regulator to monitor and maintain the standards of open learning in the country. Though India already has a Distance Education Council (DEC) functioning under the aegis of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the Ministry wants to make it an entity independent of the central university.

A Cabinet note to this effect is already in circulation. According to the proposal, the DEC will be an independent statutory body to promote, coordinate and regulate the standards of all distance education programmes offered in the country. The entire range of open learning will be covered from correspondence courses to programmes offered through satellite channels and the Internet.

Since the Internet and satellite link-ups allow students in India to access programmes offered by universities overseas, the DEC will have offshore offices to address any complaints that might arise about such programmes. Headquartered in the Capital, it will have the authority to open offices across the country and overseas.

Conceived as a "lean structure" in comparison to other regulatory authorities in the realm of education like the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education, DEC will be a 14-member body including the chairperson. Primarily, its role will be to regulate the plethora of courses on offer to protect the interest of students.

The existing DEC was set up with Parliament's approval under the IGNOU Act to promote the open university and distance education systems in the country, and determine standards of teaching, evaluation and research in such systems. However, its umbilical chord with IGNOU proved to be an irritant.

Delinking DEC from IGNOU has been a long-pending demand of universities offering correspondence courses. Attempts by the DEC in the past to set norms and standards have attracted opposition from such universities on the premise that it was not autonomous and was part of another university that offers similar distance education programmes.

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