BU to restart contact classes for central prison inmates

BENGALURU: After a lapse of almost nine years, the Directorate of Correspondence Courses and Distance Education at Bangalore University will hold contact classes for inmates of central prison in Parappana Agrahara as part of distance education courses.

“Distance education courses normally involve one month of contact classes for students. From 2000 to 2008, we used to offer both distance education and contact classes for jail inmates. While we re-started the distance education course for 321 inmates in October this year, we will start the one-month contact classes in January 2019,” said BC Mylarappa, director, Distance Education, Bangalore University.

The contact classes, held every day from 10 am to 4 pm, help students clear any doubts in the syllabus, notes and course material in the presence of teachers from the university. This will aid them in exams next year. “Inmates need to be given equal opportunities in education. Since we inaugurated 24 courses in the distance education programme on October 29, the most popular courses have been Bachelors in Commerce and Arts (BCom and BA). Many inmates who have opted for BAs, are specialising in sociology, politics and history,” Mylarappa added.

Of the 321 students enrolled, 107 have opted for BCom, 164 for BA and 13 for Bachelor of Business Management (BBM). The enrolment drive for convicts by the department also included free distance education programmes for for acid attack survivors, HIV-affected people, transgenders, the visually-impaired, children of pourakarmikas and leprosy patients. “These people don’t have financial resources to be educated. We wanted them to benefit from the same opportunities as others, so we waived the fee,” he added.

Most takers for BA programmes
BCom - 107
BA - 164
BBM - 13
BBA - 11
MA - 5
MA in Political Science - 6
M.A in 
Sociology - 5
Kannada
courses -  2
MA in History - 8