The Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) programme was launched by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in January 2000 at 20 Study Centres in teacher training colleges approved by the National Council for Teacher Education with an enrolment of 100 students at each Centre. The programme was well received and since it catered to a felt-need, the University gradually expanded its offerings to over 250 Programme Study Centres (PSCs) and helped several State Open Universities as well as conventional dual mode universities to offer it by sharing its philosophy, approach and study materials through Distance Education Council. This programme seeks to develop sound knowledge, teaching and communication skills and positive attitudes in practising teachers through a mix of theory and practical courses. The performance of distance learners is known to depend on factors such as the effectiveness of the student support systems, quality of the study materials, motivation of learners and the like. These issues could be analysed only through systematic feedback of the beneficiaries of a programme.

In this paper we report our findings on the evaluation of B.Ed programme of IGNOU based on the feedback of a sample population of 858 learners from across the country. The analysis of responses shows that the programme has been very well designed and printed study materials developed in English medium are of high quality. However, student-teachers perceive the workload to be heavier than that conceptualised by programme designers and developers. Fortunately, it has not affected their success rate, which is very high (>90%) and can be attributed to high motivation of student-teachers for acquiring necessary eligibility for a regular job or their urge for vertical mobility. To improve the quality and utility of the programme further, it would be desirable to (i) carefully review the Hindi translated version, (ii) strengthen library facilities and electronic media support, which fall woefully short of the claim, and (iii) include regional languages as well as information technology (IT) related courses in programme offerings. Our analysis also shows that student-teachers show little aptitude for problem solving, asking probing questions and skill of logical explanation. It brings forth one of the major weaknesses of our schools and explains why rote memorisation is so dominant in Indian education.