DW BUREAU / PATIALA A lecture on 'Perspective and Issues in Distance Education' was organised by the Department of Distance Education, Punjabi University here today. The keynote speaker of this lecture was Dr Kanwarjit Singh, Ex-DPI. Speaking on the occasion he said that apart from reaching unreached students, distance education should also work for differently abled students by incorporating new methodologies like audio visual, Personal Contact Programmes and working on learning deficiencies, Dr. Singh said that the first distance education agency was established in Boston, USA with the name The Society to Encourage Studies at Home. He added that there is only change in the nomenclature of distance education from correspondence studies to distance education and now also called as Open and Distance Learning (ODL) but the basic aim remains the same to provide education to all. Distance Education Bureau (DEB) is in charge of regulating distance education in India, established in 2012 by replacing the Distance Education Council. Dr Singh said apart from quality evaluation of student assignments, optimization of existing resources, easy transfer of academic credits from one institution to another and incorporation and free access of applications like YouTube is also the need of the hour. He added that extending the database for monitoring and research purposes, lateral entry and easy access to everyone should be the focus of distance education. Prof Arvind, Vice-Chancellor, in his presidential remarks said that teachers should make efforts to provide in-depth knowledge on the topic rather than covering the entire syllabus. Also present on the occasion Prof Rajesh Sharma, highlighted the importance of metaphysical knowledge instead of just providing information to the students. Rajinder Singh Chahal, a well known industrialist, said that the students should be given freedom to choose their path for their skill enhancement as controlled minds cannot be creative. (editor@dailyworld.in)