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A.M.U.ā€™s Centre for Distance Education to also focus on people with disabilities

D.N.I.S. News Network, India: The Centre for Distance Education at the Aligarh Muslim University (A.M.U.) in Uttar Pradesh will also focus on people with disabilities along with other minorities and economically weaker sections of the community. It recently organised an international conference titled ‘Open and Distance Learning for Social Justice’ on March 22 in an effort to brainstorm on enhancing the acceptability and effectiveness of open and distance learning to create social justice.

India’s education scenario now faces the need for alternate teaching systems due to demand and supply inequation between universities and students. 63 percent of students drop out unable to complete their education due to economic and social backwardness. In such a scenario, open and distance learning plays a very significant role.

People with disabilities face even more adversities in accessing mainstream education. A study done by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (N.C.P.E.D.P.) in 2003-04 found out that only 0.1 percent students with disabilities are able to make it to any university. The situation hasn’t changed much even now despite a government policy to make education inclusive by 2020 and more recently, the Right to Education Act.