Impact Of Distance Education On Women Learners.

In order to assess the impact of distance education on women, their motivation, persistence and success rate in distance education, a sample of 200 women were taken for study from Mother Teresa Women's University, School of Distance Education distributed mostly 70% among social science and 30% among science and computer sciences. A Questionnaire containing various aspects of distance education was sent to this sample of 200 women distance education learners. The following are the impact of Distance Education on women learners drawn from responses of the sample. They gained confidence Improved their career opportunities Attained more degrees for satisfaction Updated their skills Second chance of learning for disadvantaged or compelled dropout Acquisition of knowledge Change in socialization pattern of children Better decision making capacity Respect in family and community More opportunities for networking and communicating Vision broadened Flexibility in time and space Gives more freedom to the learner and extends the campus into the people's home and work places. Assists in facing the challenges in life of women Increased the literacy rate of the country and State Leads to empowerment of women. As women have gradually become empowered at the individual and collective levels through Distance Education, they have been able to address themselves to problems such as access to drinking water, payment of minimum wages, access to health services, ensuring functions of the village school, children's participation in education and have taken collective action against domestic and social violence. Women world wide increasingly opt for distance education. The secondary source of data reveals that 40 to 50 percent of the students of the majority of the open and distance education institutions are women. In India, the percentage of women in distance education is 30 to 40%. It was observed from the sample study that 70% of the women were highly motivated by self interest, friends, members of the family, the changing environment in the society, media etc., and 30% of the respondents replied that their motivation level was low. The highly motivated group mostly belonged to urban and working sector, while the less motivated group belonged to rural areas and were less educated group with poor socio economic background. Candidates with high motivation level had the persistence to continue and proved successful in their examinations while the persistence and success rate among the less motivated group was not appreciatable.