Dubai, June 2: More and more Indian students in Qatar, especially Doha, are opting for distance education programmes after passing their higher secondary examinations.

After clearing their Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 exams, the students are making a beeline for the various distance education programmes offered by a number of Indian universities in Qatar.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the Mahatma Gandhi university and the Kerala, Alagappa, Calicut, Kannur and Karnataka open universities are among those who have opened shop in that Gulf country.

These universities are opening their centres at local CBSE-affiliated schools like MES Indian School and Shantiniketan Indian School.

Recently, Kerala University's Institute of Distance Education opened its centre at Shantiniketan Indian School.

The courses offered include all streams - from humanities and science to commerce and business management programmes. The courses are being offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The latest postgraduate diploma courses in child and family counselling, journalism, early childcare, educational planning, hospital administration and functional Hindi are supposed to start from this year.

"A majority of our students are those who have passed senior secondary from MES school itself," a report in the Gulf Times newspaper quoted MES Off Campus Centre administrator P. Manoharan as saying. Over 93 percent students in the Gulf cleared the CBSE Class 12 exams this year.

There has also been a significant rise in the number of girls seeking distance education programmes. The reason, according to Ahmed Ottayil, director of the National Education Centre (NEC), was that parents wanted their daughters to stay close to them.

Also, the thought of the hardships involved in procuring admission for their children back home in India has made them look at correspondence courses.

The admission process for the various courses will start this month.

Over 130,000 Indians live in Qatar and distance education is expected to provide a big boost for the education of their children.