Edu-leaders

India should take up strategic priorities declared at the Global Education Summit-2009 to achieve its goal of providing higher education to 44 mn people by 2020, said President of Mysore Canada Commonwealth of Learning, John Daniel.

Daniel was speaking at the inaugural session of first ever three-day international press conference on 'Distance Learning in Global Environment: Issues and Challenges', organised by the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU). Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj inaugurated the conference.

According to reports, Daniel said that 165 mn people are pursuing higher education in the world today and by 2025, the number should be 263 mn. Therefore, India should increase its capacity by taking up some of the priorities in the sector.

India should focus on innovating new ways to learn, access to quality education, training the teachers and demand-based education, he said.

Professor Jagadeesha, Dean (Academic), KSOU, said, "Open distance learning adopts a wide approach to education making it more accessible and affordable. Limitations of locations, time and affordability are not constraints in this model. Open universities empower the students by allowing them to work while and studying.”

Governor Bhardwaj said that distance learning should be strengthened and there should be a system of uniform distance learning between the central and state distance learning varsities.