Effectiveness of Distance Education on Food and Nutrition

Distance education is the process of educating large number of people, dispersed and distantly located, with face to face interaction between the teacher and the taught. It is characterized by no rigid entry qualifications, learning according to one's own pace and convenience, flexibility in choice of courses and use of modern and appropriate methods of education and communication. An experimental study was conducted to assess the knowledge of selected rural school dropout girls and women about food and nutrition at pre and post stage of distance education in selected villages of Dharwad district of Karnataka. After the education, results showed that about 97 per cent of the respondents gave correct answer about food groups followed by better cooking methods (81.67%), balanced diet (80.00%) and nutrition (61.66%). The knowledge of food showed cent per cent increase about cereals, pulses and essential food required for human growth. High majority of the respondents answered rightly about the fermented foods, methods of cooking and cutting of vegetables. More than 90 per cent of the respondents were able to answer about nutritious foods, grains required in daily diet, importance of balanced diet. This experimental study clearly shows that there was significant impact on gain in knowledge of rural school dropout girls and women about food and nutrition. The results of this study created scope of learning for the poor people living in remote rural areas, for the women whose life is still covered by the four walls of social systems and for those who cannot spare time for learning in lieu of their own earning schedule.