We present here some excerpts from the Resemh Report Tiitled CorrespondencdDistunce Educurion in Indiu: An Indeprh Study
Covering the yeur 1989-90 by Bakhshish Singh, Samj Mullick and Neelam Chaudq, edited by B.N. Koul. The primary reason for
giving these excerpts here is that the findings and the recommendations of this Research Report should reach the audience who have interest in watching the developments in the field of distance education in India. These findings and recommendations given here, we hope, would help the personnel involved in the practice of distance education in the various types of institutions of correspondencddistance education in their current efforts of reshaping, updating and upgrading numerous courses/programmes, policies and strategies. We expect that readers would get a clearer picture of the general scenario of distance education in the country.

The Research Report as' such focuses on four themes: i) Profiles of institutions and students, ii) Teaching-learning
methodology covering staff development, preparation and delivery of course materials and student support services, iii) Finance and iv) Networking of the institutions studied. In all, the study group contacted 41 Correspondence Course Institutes (CCls), 5 State Open Universities and I National Open University to obtain the necessary data. Questionnaires and some selective guided interviews were used to collect data, apart from extensive study of relevant literature on tile themes concerned. Three types of questionnaire were sent to three categories: students, members of the faculty and institutions. These were further divided into two sub categories meant for CCIs and ous respectively. Altogether the questionnaire contained: 60 questions for CCI students; 61 for OU students; 39 questions for the faculty of CCls and 52 for the faculty of the OUs; and 106 questions for CCls and 106 for OUs. There were also interviews with a selective number of all the categories mentioned. However, it was not polsible to get the feedback from all.

The data collected from 29 CCls, 4 OUs, 90 Students of CCls and 89 students of OUs, 30 faculty members of CCIs and 18
faculty members of OUs, as also from meetings with Directors and Faculty members of 10 CCIs and 20 OUs was compiled
systematically and analysed to arrive at general findings and recommendations. What follows as findings and recommendations should be treated as the essentials of analysis as also the interpretation of the data.