Education is the process of acquiring knowledge from teachers through their teaching. It is the learning that one gets in schools. It mainly involves activities like imparting knowledge by the teachers in classrooms, presentation of study materials by faculty members, practical training in workshop by the instructor with the aim to train the student in any particular subject matter and to give them practical exposure on the practical aspects of real time situations, imparting him with the necessary technical skills required to face the practical situations.

What is the need for Education?

Education is basic fundamental and an important ingredient required for development of any society. Education of a person improves his social status, his mental status, his knowledge, and his abilities to develop his skills to face practical lie situations. Education is the only weapon with which one can kill ignorance and fight with unawareness. An educated person can perceive things in a better way because he ahs a broad mind with which he can see the things differently. He has a broadened mind with which he is able to understand all the faces of any problem and then he will be able to handle the situation in a better way.

Status of education is high in developed countries but if we talk about developing countries the scene is just opposite. The literacy rate in developing countries like India is very low. Though continuous efforts are being made by the government to achieve the higher literacy rate but still the target is far to achieve and it will take years to achieve the targets that are being set by the UNESCO and the government of these countries.

But why is this so? Why the literacy rate is not up to desired mark despite of continuous efforts? What are the major barriers which prevent spread of education? The reasons can be best described as:

Lack of Education and Infrastructure facilities which prevent the literacy rate from being reaching up to desired mark, poverty in a major segment of population which prevents the parents from sending their children to schools, Gender inequality that means female are not given the same preference as the male which should not be and the traditional caste practices which also plays a major role in preventing the education to reach the light of education to reach all the doors.

If people from developing countries are able to overcome these barriers the education level will definitely rise in these developing countries.

Distance learning programs are becoming the most popular and viable way of teaching and learning. More and more people are registering for distance learning programs of different universities. Distance learning program gives freedom to a student to learn at his own pace, his own schedule and at his own convenience.

Distance learning is imparted through the electronic media and study materials supplied by the university for a particular course. It helps people to upgrade their educational qualification even when they are tied up in their working schedule. Some business houses also use distance learning to train their employees as it is less time consuming, less expensive and adds to the human resource enrichment of the business house.

To enroll for a distance learning course one must be sure as to what kind of specialization one is looking for. An extensive study must then be done to find out in details about the universities that offer the course wanted. The time duration of the course, the fees, the software needed and the time of exam must also be checked. The most important factor that should be checked is that whether the school or university is accredited or not, one should not register in a university which is not accredited.

Every coin has two sides and distance learning program is not an exception to the rule. While distance learning program is advantageous as it helps people to continue with their education despite of their demanding schedule it also has some disadvantages. It may fail to motivate a student to study resulting in no good for the candidate, this shows registering yourself is not sufficient, you must also have a drive in yourself to continue with the study. The success of distance education also depends on the success of the technology. And without a good support system and infrastructure the distance learning may be a failure.

Thus we can say that distance learning is a boon for today’s busy and demanding world but it also demands a significant level of maturity from its students.