Whether or not teacher education should be given ~isingthem ethods of distance cducation is an issue which has been debated
for a long time now. Strong views have been expressed both in its favour and against it. Having allowed it under special circumstances. there are institutions which offer such programmescurrently. but pressures are building against them. The major argument against them is horn of the concern for skills component - practice teaching - which has traditionally been a significant part of each and every teacher training programme in India. The contention is that distance education programmes cannot satisfy this requirement satisfactorily.

The issue is a serious one and has been discussed at the highest policy making levels. More recently the issue has been posed to the lndira Gandhi National Open University. which is responsible for the determination of standards in distance education in the country. This paper presents the views of IGNOU, emphasising that today distance education practices do not necessarily exclude skills based legitimate components in any educationltraining programme. If distance education institutions provide for skills components adequately there should be nothing against their imparting teacher education/training. Of course. at the operational level very stringent mechanisms are required to manage the programmes satisfactorily.