Distance Education

Hi all,
Today, "education without attending schools/colleges" is a common method. We call it "Distance education", relatively a new terminology.
But, I would like to bring to your notice that distance education ( on various subjects and courses) was available in India even during 1960s ( as I know it, from Science Today, and magazines like, the then  "Illustrated Weekly of India" ).
The pioneer in this field was (is ? )  "British Institute of Engineering Technology", Bombay. 
I'll show you the graphic of an advertisement of BIET. This used to be there in ST, regularly.
I personally know ( and studied) that the courses offered by them  were really excellent;  very good course materials ( including text books) and excellant follow up methods. What they offered was known as "Correspondence courses" or "postal courses" .

I understand that BIET is active even now ( but I don't see any advts !), inspite of the numerous distance education programmes offered by most of the Indian Universities, and other private organisations. ( IGNOU is the leader in this field).