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| A BACKGROUND NOTE OF THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF PRIVATE OPEN & DISTANCE LEARNING INSTITUTIONS OF INDIA |
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In December, 2007, a meeting was held in CEMCA, New Delhi, in connection with the programs being implemented by the SCDL, Pune. Sir John Daniel, President & CEO and Dr. Asha Kanwar, Vice President & Program Director, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada, besides the Director, CEMCA, were present. In addition to Ms. Swati Mujumdar, Director, SCDL, Dr. S.K.Gandhe, Sr. Academic Adviser, SCDL, was also present.
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The meeting very much appreciated the excellent work being done in the field of open & distance learning by a private, autonomous institute like the SCDL. It was realized that there might be several other such private sector institutions doing excellent work, but there is not enough information available to the international/ national level organizations, or for that matter, other institutions in the field. It was also felt that the number of private sector ODL institutions is steadily growing in India, and is bound to go up further in view of the fact that the national planners and educational administrators expect to raise additional enrolment in ODL institutions by 20 m. in the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012). Emergence of a large sector of private providers is the foregone conclusion.
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It was against this background that it was decided to create a forum of private sector ODL institutions of India, which will not only enable wider dissemination of information, but also provide a platform for effectively pursuing the cause of such institutions and safeguard their interests. Moreover, exchange of best practices, faculty, learning materials, etc. among the member-institutions will go a long way in improving work-efficiency of all. Sir John Daniel suggested that CEMCA and SCDL jointly take a lead in creating a forum of private ODL institutions in India. The first step necessary was to obtain a list of private educational institutions providing distance learning, either as a single mode or a double mode institution. The DEC was approached for this purpose which supplied a list of 25 such institutions. It was apprehended that there might be some more such institutions (two names were later identified), but their details were not available.
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