The government on Sunday said the top 100 universities in the country would be “automatically” allowed to start online courses by May 30, brushing aside concerns about the digital divide and possible exclusion of underprivileged students.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Prime Minister’s eVIDYA scheme, as the Centre pressed ahead with its agenda of technology-driven education amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
While the universities would be selected based on their performance according to the National Institute of Ranking Framework (NIRF), no details were shared officially on what the minister meant by “automatically”.
Government sources said the University Grants Commission had approved certain changes in its policy regarding online courses but the higher education regulator was yet to notify them.
The finance minister’s announcement means the new policy has been made public before the UGC’s notification of the changes.
Earlier, before starting online courses, a government official said, universities had to take approval from the regulator, whose 2018 policy allowed only those that had accreditation marks of at least 3.26 out of four to offer such courses. Only a handful of institutions have got permission to offer complete courses in online mode so far.
Last month, on April 27, the UGC had approved in-principle the changes to its policy to allow more universities to start online courses.
On Thursday, May 14, the UGC officially approved the changes to give permission to universities that have figured among the top 100 in the NIRF rankings. Officials said the lists for the last three years might be followed because the rankings change from year to year.
According to the new policy, these universities would be given permission to start online courses but there would be a cap on the number of subjects. It was not clear what the cap would be.
Officials also clarified that online mode would cover lectures, exams, evaluation and publication of results.
Another change was the accreditation score has been lowered to 3.01 from 3.26, while open universities would be able to offer online courses with approval from the UGC.
A government official said once a university switches to online mode in a particular subject, it would be difficult to continue offline.
The minister’s announcement came days after the Federation of Central Universities Teachers’ Associations, had openly opposed the push for online courses citing the digital divide.
Some teachers had voiced concerns that underprivileged students would suffer because of lack of personal computers and high-speed Internet.
Delivery of higher education in digital mode has been a key agenda of the NDA government, which has been arguing that it would help take education to students’ doorsteps.
Prof. R.P. Tiwari, vice-chancellor, Dr Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, welcomed all the online interventions announced by the government and said teachers were key agents of change who would have to take the education reforms forward. He also thanked the Prime Minister and the HRD minister for the initiatives.
“The online mode of education is a significant reform. They (teachers, students and parents) have to embrace the reforms in toto and implement (them) so that the desired results will reach the youths of the nation,” Tiwari said.
Sitharaman also announced Manodarpan, an initiative for psycho-social support for students, teachers and families to be launched immediately. The New National Curriculum and Pedagogical framework for school, early childhood and teachers will also be launched, she said.
The finance minister said a National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission would be ready for rollout by December to ensure that every child attained learning levels and desired outcomes, she added.