Bangalore University | Distance Education Is A Distant Dream

[bustudymate]

No classes or exams have been held for the students

Over the last five months, several faculty members from distance education courses or universities conducting online education have gone mute, say students. Students have made several complaints to the universities that their distance education courses have come to a halt and there is no communication from the university. Neither are online classes conducted nor are any materials updated on the websites.
When the pandemic hit the state, many universities decided to call off the physical classes and conducted online classes to complete their syllabus. The Ministry of Education also allowed conducting online examinations at the university or college level. But, between all these orders and guidelines, the distance education programme students have been suffering.
A student said, “We are in our first-year post-graduation program and we have paid our fees last year. Technically our first year is almost coming to an end in a month or so. But we have not had classes, no assignments have been given and no information on the first-year exams. The university said that due to the pandemic, the academic year has been affected.”

Professor BC Mylarappa, in-charge director of Bangalore University’s distance education department said, “We are thinking of starting physical classes from September 5 so why should we bother with online classes? The government is saying Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) is the only university that should run distance education. So, we do not know what to do.”
While Mylarappa openly agreed that no classes for distance education have been conducted, students questioned their completion of the year. Another student said, “I have applied for National Eligibility Test (NET) test and I’m also pursuing my Master’s Degree at KSOU. Even after a year, my academic year is not over. If my NET results are declared I will need my Master’s Degree in a year to apply. But nothing has happened at the university, not even online classes.”

Professor Lingraju Gandhi, registrar of KSOU said, “There are departments who are conducting the online classes. We are also waiting for the Directorate of Distance Education to release the academic year schedule for the upcoming semesters. On the basis on that, we will take a call on how we need to adjust classes. But, for the pending years, we have already called for examinations and applications are open.”
KSOU Vice-Chancellor Professor Vidyashankar said that he would look into the matter.