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15th March, 2010

IGNOU Convocation: New Programmes in Disability

Delivering the Convocation Speech at the 21st Convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU), Prof S.K Joshi former Director General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) exhorted IGNOU authorities to make human values a part of the education of every student.

Prof. Joshi emphasized that most of us consider that the purpose of education is to equip us to get better jobs, which provides us wealth and good living. Our education does not prepare a student for dealing with life, merely prepares him for a job. Our education does not teach us how to examine goals we set in life, how to sort our conflicts, how to deal with relationships with family and friends. Today’s children do not have opportunity to learn about value system from grand parents. There is no guidance from any quarter about meaning of life, importance of spirituality, simplicity and modesty.

Because we ignore human values in our educational system we are witnessing rise of crime, erosion of social discipline and atomization of family. The evil of corruption has permeated all sections of our society. Our education should shape our students to become honest, self –confident and responsible citizens. Shri Aurobindo said, “Most vital of all, the spiritual and intellectual divorce from past, which the present schools and universities have affected, has beggared the nation of originality, high aspirations and forceful energy which alone makes a nation great”. IGNOU should therefore deliberate how human values could become a part of the education of a student so that we are able to reconcile modernity and economic prosperity with human values, he added.

In his report V.C Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai IGNOU announced new programmes in Mental Retardation, Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment as well as M.Ed. in Special Education and M.Sc. in Counseling and Family Therapy. The programmes are:

Postgraduate Professional Diploma in Special Education in the area of Mental Retardation, Visual Impairment, and Hearing Impairment. Post Graduate Professional Certificate in Special Education Programme of 6 month duration in the area of Mental Retardation, Visual Impairment, and Hearing Impairment.·

M.Ed. Special Education, M.Sc. in Counseling and Family Therapy, Certificate in Early Childhood Special Education Enabling Inclusion (Mental Retardation)

IGNOU has launched an unprecedented new sign language programme to benefit the professional education of deaf students throughout India it includes the first-ever BA degree in Applied Sign Linguistics in India and a one-year preparatory course, targeted at deaf signers the one-year preparatory course will lead to the BA Applied Sign Linguistics degree, which is due to start in 2010. This course aims at producing language teachers competent to teach literacy and sign language to children, adults, interpreters, parents of the deaf, and teachers for India’s over 550 deaf schools with a scope for international outreach as well.

The International Centre for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies

( iSLanDS Centre), IGNOU and Ishara Foundation are developing a vision for a complete Deaf College, where Indian and international deaf students could study a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a sign language using a study environment that is fully accessible to them.

V.C, IGNOU further stated that in a major thrust towards diversifying its range and mode of course offerings, IGNOU has launched a large number of programmes in the on-campus mode. These include programmes in Journalism, Electronic Media Production and Management, Social Anthropology, Chemistry, Gender and Development Studies, Extension and Development Studies, Labour and Development, Actuarial Science, Social Work and Translation Studies, among others.

At this Convocation, which was telecast Live on Gyan Darshan and held simultaneously at 43 Regional Centres, 66 Gold Medals were awarded.

IGNOU student, Dhondup Dolma, Master of Arts(Sociology) was awarded the Prof. Ram Reddy Memorial Gold Medal for the Highest marks in any Master Degree programme in Social Science. Anjali Kumari Singh, Masters in Computer Applications, was awarded the CEMCA cash award of Rs.10,000/- for the Best Female student in any Degree Programme pertaining to technology. The Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam cash award for the Gold Medalist in BSW was awarded to Vijayan M and Naresh Chand, BA (Ord) was awarded the Prof. Grover cash award for differently- abled students.

March 12, 2010

DEC cautions Distance Education Institutions giving False Advertisements

The Chairman, Distance Education Council (DEC) and Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai cautioned Universities and Institutions giving misleading advertisements in newspapers, stating that their programmes are recognized by the Distance Education Council(DEC).

DEC has prescribed the guidelines for determination of the standards for Distance Education systems in the country. It is therefore mandatory for all Institutions, Centres and Directorates offering programmes through the distance education mode to get their Degrees, Diplomas and Certificate programmes recognized and approved by the DEC.

In case an institution is already running distance education programmes, it must apply to DEC for recognition of the institution and its programmes. It is also the responsibility of the institution to strictly adhere to the norms prescribed by the concerned statutory authorities for offering professional and technical programmes.

Further, those Universities which have been approved by DEC for the academic year 2009-10 onwards, were also asked to clearly mention the names of the programmes for which approval has been granted to them , in their advertisements.

The institutions violating these norms would be liable to be de-recognized by the DEC. it was also informed to the institutions offering education through distance mode that any degree/ diploma/ certificate being offered by them through distance mode not recognized by DEC, shall not be accepted for employment in Government service.

The institutions/Universities are directed to submit their applications to the DEC within a month’s time , in the prescribed proforma available on the DEC website, http://www.dec.ac.in, for obtaining recognition for themselves and their programmes.

March 11, 2010

IGNOU to start Model Study Centres within the campus

Indira Gandhi National open University(IGNOU) Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai today announced that IGNOU will soon establish Model Study Centres within the campus. He was speaking at the Inauguration of the newly constructed Classroom Block within the campus.

Congratulating the IGNOU Construction and Maintenance Division, Professor Pillai announced that IGNOU will soon have a full-fledged Administrative Block.

The VC said,” Higher education has received 400 additional allocation in all Universities within the country in the last 4 years. So there is a need to pass on the benefits to the students. Several initiatives are being started to improve the quality of learning, including making world-class study material being made accessible to the IGNOU students. There is a need to have face-to-face interaction with the students. Even though IGNOU teachers do not meet all students face-to-face, the Academic Counsellors directly interact with all the enrolled 2.8 million learners .”

The VC also announced that 20-22 more classrooms will be coming up soon in the campus.The newly constructed Classroom block has a total of 20 rooms and the classes are expected to start soon. The classroom block will benefit the regular students enrolled in 21 Full-time programmes of the University.

March 9, 2010

Women Writers come together to celebrate International Women’s Day in IGNOU

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Gender and Development Studies (SOGDS) celebrated the International Women’s Day with a Panel Discussion on “Contemporary Status of Women’s Struggle, Work and Writings”. The discussion was followed by a street play “Dayra” by Sangwari, a street theatre group.

The function was held in the IGNOU Convention Centre and was presided over by the IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai. The participants in the panel discussion were Dr. Lakshmi Kanan, a renowned Tamil poet and fiction writer, Maitreyi Pushpa, a writer who started feminist discourse in Hindi literature and Rekha Awasthi, a literary critic in Hindi literature.

In his Presidential Address, Professor Pillai said,” There is a crying need for education at all levels for women, especially in the fields of skill
development, science and technology and small scale industries. There are schemes in the Government in these areas, but implementation lags behind. IGNOU has the requisite programmes for facilitating these activities. IGNOU can also promote awareness about Women’s Rights, and take it to the
grassroots.”

Speaking on her women characters, Maitreyi Pushpa said, ”Women express their feelings and articulate their rights through folk songs. She talks about her right to be born, to happiness, joy and sexuality. However, these songs are not heard by men. How will the Woman’s Voice be heard? The traditions and conventions which have been given to us as legacy favour patriarchal society. My heroine in ‘Chaak’ recognizes this fact very well and wants to take her own decisions, like all normal women.”

She further added that male writers have been writing about the women that they ‘want’. Whereas, women writers write from experience. This makes women’s writing very powerful.

Speaking at the discussion, Dr. Kanan commented, ”Patriarchy is a culture we have grown up with. It can’t be thrown away in a day. We can’t live without what men do for us. If women want to exorcise patriarchy, they have to join together, but not become female chauvinists in the process. In fact the women who interest me are those who are able to negotiate spaces and work around limited choices.”

Talking about how women’s empowerment is not possible without poverty alleviation, Rekha Awasthi said,” Gender studies has to be linked to the class society, and economic policy of the country has to be addressed for the empowerment of women. Patriarchy is a class approach. Women have been given many faces, those of Kaikeyi, Manthra….. We appreciate Meerabai and Radha, but no father or brother wants her in his home.”

“SOGDS and School of Agriculture, IGNOU are collaborating together to start a Diploma/ PG Certificate in Gender, Agriculture and Sustainablity. There are also plans to launch a programme in Gender and Law, jointly by SOGDS and the School of Law”, announced Prof Savita Singh, Director, SOGDS. She added, “We are celebrating Women’s Day proclaiming that we respect people who respect us. We value equality and also appreciate the Government’s initiative for tabling of the Women’s Reservation Bill, which is a Bill about equality and not just women’s reservation.”

March 7, 2010

Set standards for Research in India
Vice Chancellor, IGNOU

“While higher education establishments and Government focus on Ph.D programmes, there is also great concern and apprehension about the poor quality of the M Phil. and Ph.D programmes offered in large numbers by some institutions misusing the autonomy and the concept of Distance education. Strict enforcement of quality criteria, following international benchmarks in research, is the only way to curb these undesirable practices. Quality research of high impact happening in
renowned Open University and Distance Education systems should be supported and encouraged to set national benchmarks in this area,” announced Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai.

Achieving high levels of Research performance in discipline-based research is the target of IGNOU in this decade of Innovation, the Vice Chancellor stated. He further added that, ”We cannot take a stand that the Open University and Distance Education system will not be able to provide the facilities and ambience for
High quality research. State-of –the –art research laboraties, even in sophisticated science and technology areas, are available in the Open University system”.

The various schemes of IGNOU and the Distance Education Council (DEC) have contributed to the emergence of the University as a World leader in systemic research in the area of Open and Distance learning(ODL) pedagogy. These schemes include minor and major research schemes , study leave for staff to undertake research at the doctoral and post-doctoral levels, sabbatical leave , facilitation of participation in national and international research conferences, the setting up of
special institutes like the Staff Training and Research in Distance Education(STRIDE), the National Centre for Innovations in Distance Education(NCIDE), the National Centre for Disability Studies(NCDS), the Chair for Sustainable Development, the Research and Teaching Assistantship(RTA) Scheme for highly meritorious full-time
postgraduates and the setting up of the statutory Research Council and the Research Unit.

Many Open Universities in the world, like the UK Open University, the Open University of Netherlands and Hong Kong Open University support extensive doctoral and post-doctoral research. They have excellent research portfolios and vibrant research communities which are enhanced through collaborations with top-ranking research
institutions worldwide. In addition to the key discipline based research units, they have established highly relevant major cross-disciplinary research establishments. The UK Open University, in fact, is not only the No. 1 in the mandatory Annual Student Satisfaction Survey there, it also ranks very high in the mandatory Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). IGNOU is proud of the fact that its systemic research feeds directly into the content of its world-leading teaching programmes. The University is committed to utilize its large pool of academics with extensive research experience to train young researchers, in both systemic as well as discipline –based research of the highest quality.

March 5, 2010

IGNOU Organizes National Seminar on Translation

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Translation Studies and Training is organizing a two day National Seminar on Translation and Inter-Cultural Communication.

The Seminar aims to address the dynamics of translational communication with a focus on the Indian subcontinent. A large number of participants from different parts of the country are coming to present papers at the Seminar.

The Seminar will be held on 6-7th March at the Kaustubh Auditorium, Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhawan.

The inaugural session of the Seminar will be chaired by IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai and the keynote address will be presented by Prof. Mushirul Hasan, Former VC, Jamia Millia Islamia.

The inaugural session will be followed by sessions on ‘Role of Translation in Multicultural Society’, Journey of Ideas and Translation, Indian Tradition of Translation and Asian Tradition of Translation.

Amongst the illustrious participants in the Seminar are Prof. Indra Nath Choudhuri, Prof. Manager Pandey, Prof. Rakshanda Jalil , Prof. Sangh Sen Singh and others.

2nd March, 2010

IGNOU Fixes Maximum Duration of IGNOU Management Programmes

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) has fixed the maximum duration of Management programmes to a maximum duration of eight years.

All old 3.81 lakh students of Management programmes of IGNOU and MBA(B&F) have been informed to successfully complete all the requirements for the award of Degrees/ Diploma by December 2010 term-end examination. If they fail, they will have to seek fresh admission to complete the left-over courses.

The Circular letter dated 1st February, 2007 sent to 3.81 lakh students registered upto the year 2006, can be downloaded from the IGNOU website : www.ignou.ac.in(Students Zone).

Re-registration for July 2010 session is open now. The last date for submitting the Re- Registration Form with late fee at the respective Regional Centres is 20.6.2010. Re- Registration form can be downloaded from the IGNOU website( Students Zone).

February 28, 2010

IGNOU Convocation

In its Silver Jubilee year, the 21ST Convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) will be held on 15th March 2010 at IGNOU Headquarters and simultaneously at its 43 Regional centers at Ahmedabad, Aizawl,Agartala, Aligarh, Bangalore,Bhopal,Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Cochin, Chandigarh, Darbhanga, Dehradun, Guwahati, Gangtok,,Hyderabad, Itanagar, Imphal, Jaipur, Jammu, Jabalpur, Karnal, Khanna, Kolkata, Koraput, Kohima, Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Panaji, Raipur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Shillong, Shimla, Siliguri, Srinagar, Trivandrum, Varanasi and Vijayawada via tele-conferencing.

Prof S.K Joshi, Padma Bhushan, former Director General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), shall deliver the Convocation address. Prof Joshi is Honorary Vikram Sarabhai Professor of JNCASR at the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi.

Degree / Diploma certificates will be distributed between 11 AM & 1:30 PM to over 1.3 Lac students all over the country. IGNOU is at present, the world’s Largest University with more that 3 Million students.

For collection, students must produce IGNOU I-Card in Person and contact Registrar Student Evaluation Division in case of any problem.

The eligible candidates who have passed their examination held in December 2008 and June 2009 are eligible to attend the Convocation.

At this Convocation Gold/Silver Medals shall be awarded:

1. Gold Medal for Innovation in Open and Distance Learning
2. Gold and Silver medals for best research paper and second- best research paper sponsored by Indian Bank.
3. Gold medal for Best service award to the best Regional Centre.
4. Gold medal for Best International Partner Institution.
5. Prof. G Ram Reddy Memorial Medal for highest aggregate marks in Master Degree Programmes in Social Science Subjects.

Cash Awards at this Convocation are:

1. CEMCA Cash Award of Rs. 10,000/- for best female student in Information Communication Technology.
2. Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam Cash Award of Rs. 10,000/- for the Gold Medalist in Bachelor of Social Work.
3. Prof. Grover Cash Award of Rs.5000/- & 3000/- for scoring highest marks in M.Com and B.Com for the differently- abled students.

February 26, 2010

ICDL 2010 asks countries bring DL Act, adopt a policy each

New Delhi : Library scientists of trans-national universities and repositories took a firm foot forward to start a world wide networking of libraries to ensure seamless, digitize and free access to information and knowledge through Digital Library Networking.

It urged the participating governments to work fast to enact a Digital Library Act and develop a Digital Library Policy in each country, which were emphasized in the ICDL 2006 at New Delhi four years back. The committee comprised representatives from various countries.

The committee urged the member-states to set up an apex inter-ministerial body to discuss and conclude over the issues involving Digital Libraries networking, bring all government publications in public domain for open access, organize global access to information under a creative common lincensing, strengthen ICT infrastructure with high bandwidth and computing facilities, among others.

On the concluding day today at the International Conference of Digital Libraries 2010 (ICDL 2010), jointly convened by Indira Gandhi National Open University and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) here, the expert committee chaired by Dr Kalpana Dasgupta, chief of Central Secretariat Library of India, recommended that the Digital Libraries must be brought into existence through inter-governmental private-public partnership model to institute open, distance and technology-enabled e-learning.

The Recommendations are :

• To reemphasise the need for enacting Digital Library Act as already recommended in ICDL 2006
• To reemphasise the need to evolve National Digital Library Policy as already recommended in ICDL 2006
• To build national capacity and capability through public and private sector partnership, and
• To harness in each member-country, digital library technologies for e-learning and open and distance learning.

As it translates, if the new Act is enacted and a national policy developed in every participating nation, then the digital libraries will enable a student in any part of the world to access information in the specified repository at a different country without any obstacle or regulatory control. This will fulfill the demand of democratization of education, which is a long-drawn cry among the world communities.

The ICDL 2010 had 700 delegates participating, including 65 top librarians of the world deliberating. Over 200 researched presentations were discussed avidly in the four days of conference, which is fast becoming a silent intellectual movement.

The valedictory ceremony was chaired by IGNOU Pro Vice Chancellor Prof Parvin Sinclair. Of the expert committee members, Prof Jens Thorhaug of Hungary, Prof Michael Seadle from Berlin, Prof Manohar Lal of IGNOU were present on the dais besides, Dasgupta. The committee had observers from IGNOU and TERI, Dr Sudhir Arora and Shri Debal C Kar, respectively.

Libraries around the world have embraced some digitization of their resources, world over. Yet with advent of new opportunities in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the felt-need has widened to accommodate seamless access to knowledge. If that happens, then most difficult knowledge domains would be accessed. For example, researching on traditional knowledge (TK) of therapeutic practices in a country can be possible by accessing even the ancient documents of that country, if credibly digitized.

However, things did not shape up the way it should have been. Impediments were mainly the lack of consensus on issues of Intellectual Property Rights, economic, infrastructure, bandwidth, content development, standardisation, and skill development etc. If the objectives are met, the Digital Library Movement is likely to create an entire corpus of domain knowledge sharing, far more advanced and free from which the popular search engines can provide today.

In his valedictory address Mr Jawahar Sarkar, Culture Secretary of India said, “We are not happy with what we get from the search engines. I feel an archaic state of stagnancy all around us when it comes to access to knowledge. Digitization of archives, libraries are a movement in making. Based on these recommendations we need to lay down standards.”

This point was earlier stressed by Ms Deanna B Marcum of Library Congress, USA, at her inaugural day address of the ICDL 2010, “There are examples of libraries, usually working in collaboration with other cultural institutions, putting their resources into the digitization projects. Libraries today have embraced blogs, RSS feeds, Wikis, Twitter, and other social media to make content useful on handheld devices such as iPhones and BlackBerries.”

Unesco Director Armugham Parasuramen dittoed and offered to support by all possible means to stem and develop the movement. “UNESCO Paris and UNESCO Delhi will closely implement the recommendations and develop a guidelines framework for the Digital Libraries to facilitate the member-states to develop policies comprehensively”, he announced.

February 26, 2010

Need for Programmes on Domestic Violence and Drug Abuse Treatment by IGNOU- Dr Kiran Bedi

“There has been no Police Reforms for the last 60 years and there is a dearth of research on policing in the country,” said Dr. Kiran Bedi, while delivering the IGNOU Silver Jubilee Lecture in the Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) campus.

Dr Kiran Bedi exhorted IGNOU to play a proactive role in the field of Policing research. ”Who researches policing, does the research become public? No data is available on the police and States in the country have no resources and no budget to undertake this type of research. IGNOU can play a major role in the field of Police research. Your research will be policy making.”

Dr Bedi further said judicial reforms are also least researched . Judicial reforms and Police reforms are linked as there can be no police reforms without reforms in the judicial system.

She added that as per a recent survey by CNN-IBN, public has more faith in the Judiciary than in the Police. IGNOU can be the agents of change by helping train police lower ranks in computer basics, which will empower them to serve citizens better.

Dr Bedi advocated the inclusion of two programmes by IGNOU, on Domestic Violence and Drug Abuse Treatment. Talking about domestic violence, she said ,”We have the laws and the infrastructure on Domestic violence but the awareness about the law is very low. There is a gnawing need for a training programme for NGOs to manage Councellors who work with domestic violence sufferers.”

Dr Bedi added that Drug Abuse treatment, a field in which she has been actively involved for the last 21 years, urgently needs trained counselors. “What is happening now is that patients who get treated, go on to start Drug Rehabilitation Centres. And sometimes patients are chained to treat them, in these Centres,” she added.

Dr Bedi offered the Family Councelling Centres being run by Navjyoti, her NGO, as Training centres for IGNOU students. She also offered to provide internships to students enrolled in these two proposed IGNOU programmes .

Dr. Kiran Bedi, IPS was speaking on “Welfare, Preventive Policing and Helping the Helpless”, organized by IGNOU. The talk was based on the rich experience and expertise of the speaker, including more than 35 years of tough , innovative and welfare policing, while focusing on the broader theme of ‘including the excluded’.

Describing Welfare policing as the Power to correct, not arrest, Dr Bedi, shared her experimentations and insights gained as the founder of two renowned NGOs, Navjyoti and India Vision Foundation, which reach out to over 10,000 beneficiaries daily in areas of drug abuse treatment, schooling for children of prisoners, in addition to education, training, counseling and health care to the urban and rural poor.

The lecture provided a plan of action for moving forward with objectives of welfare, preventive policing and helping the helpless.

February 25, 2010

IGNOU should initiate research for police reforms : Kiran Bedi

New Delhi : Dehumanising of policemen and subsistence in sub-culture are two maladies which are ailing Indian policing. There are tremendous pressures and pools on them. India needs to adopt welfare and preventive policing system, for which enough reforms have to be brought in the Indian policing practices, said former Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police, Dr Kiran Bedi, IPS. Community policing is the key to solutions of the social problems and correcting the policing system of its ailments, she said.

Delivering the 3rd Silver Jubilee Lecture of Indira Gandhi National Open University today in the campus, the most celebrated super cop of India Dr Kiran Bedi said, “We have over 1.7 million policemen in the country, of whom 95% are in the ranks of inspectors and below. Of them, 75% are constables. We have a large size of constabulary. They work 24x7, many times their leaves are cut, a training in a lifetime only which does not train them to perform better, they get raw treatment at work and all these dehumanizing effects they pass onto the people while at policing. This is an expression of sub-culture. Dehumanising of policemen is a natural consequence in India which needs to be corrected,” she said, adding, “It is the Media and the Business which alone can initiate it for Police Reforms.”

Asked what she would say about the recent Press Conference convened and addressed by the IPS officer in West Bengal covering his face in veils, over the Shilda (West Bengal) massacre by the Maoists, Dr Bedi said, “I don’t exactly know what was his compulsions or motivation, but I appreciate his courage, for taking such a string decision.”

Dr Bedi urged IGNOU to take the lead in all these issues. She said that in line of freeing of jailbirds’ education, the university should also ensure free and compulsory computer education to the constabulary. That would have immediate impact towards police reforms, she added. “You will get about 2 million more students enrolled with you every year and the Indian police would be smarter with knowledge and access to the latest technologies. If we can do it for prisons, let us do it for the cops too. If we want to do it faster, let IGNOU take the lead, and definitely, things would shape up faster”, she said.”

She also urged the university to launch at least two training programmes which will bring real change in the society. These are programmes against Domestic Violence and Drug Abuse Treatment. These again only IGNOU can do justice about, because, it has the outreach and capability to institute social responsibilities to its programmes.

Referring to the Police Budget 2010, Dr Bedi said that the allocation of Rs 35,000 crore is not enough to support moves for police reforms. Of this amount the states have to spend Rs 23,000 crore and the balance Rs 12,000 crore is to be spent by the Centre. “The states do not spend more than the 2% of its responsibilities. According to the current state of Law and order, the government today needs to recruit about 18,000 policemen every year”, she said.

Dr Bedi urged IGNOU to also free education to child prisoners, as she is doing at her organization, India Vision Foundation, which she set up from the her Magsasay Award money. Her organization would love to join hands with IGNOU for these purposes, she added. There could be a number of talking points to be raised, she suggested. These are : Night vigil through community policing, beat boxes for cops on beats (a system lone made obsolete because of inertia), recognition of good work done by cops, developing children-cops for traffic education and close interaction with the residents welfare bodies.

Earlier welcoming the veteran super cop at the chock-a-bloc Convention Centre auditorium, Vice Chancellor Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai reminded the audience how Dr Bedi successfully started a move to educate the jailbirds in Tihar jail, which soon became institutionalized. IGNOU’s current decision of free education to the jailmates has been stemmed from her action.

February 24, 2010

Rail Concession to IGNOU Students

“Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) students enrolled in Face- to- Face Programmes will now have the facility of concession for Rail Travel”,announced IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, today.

This benefit was not available to IGNOU students before and will place these Face-to-face students on par with those enrolled in face to face courses in other Central Universities. The Railway Board has agreed to extend theis facility with immediate effect.

The move will positively impact enrollment in the next admission cycle for the academic year beginning July 2010.

Efforts are also on to extend the Bus pass facility by the Delhi Transport Corporation(DTC) to IGNOU face-to-face students.

IGNOU is currently running 21 face-to-face programmes under various Schools in its Maidan Garhi campus, New Delhi.

February 23, 2010

IGNOU & TERI Co-host ICDL-2010

Shri Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Minister for Human Resource Development today inaugurated Third International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL 2010), co-hosted by Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) and The Energy and Resource Institute(TERI) at the India Habitat Centre.

Smt D Purandeswari, Minister of State for Human Resource Development was the Guest of Honour for the inauguration function of the Conference. IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, TERI Director General Dr. R K Pachauri and Ms. Deanne Marcum, Library of Congress, USA, addressed the gathering at the inauguration ceremony.

The Tutorials of this International Conference were inaugurated by Dr T Ramaswami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology, in the presence of the Guest of Honour, Ms. Anne Caputo, President, Special Libraries Association, USA and Dr. Vibha Dhawan, Executive Director, TERI, in the morning at the IGNOU Convention Centre at Maidan Garhi.

ICDL 2010 is being organized from 23rd to 26th February, 2010.The theme of the conference is ‘Digital Libraries: Shaping the Information Paradigm’ and the focus is on the strengths and potential of digital libraries and their role in education, cultural, social and economic development.

The International Conference will facilitate the availability of the rich repositories and connective links to the identified topics from the world’s libraries for students, researchers, scholars, teachers, trainers, writers, artists and other members of the Knowledge society. All libraries of the world will be networked for all domains of knowledge for sharing , research and development so that students will not have to visit libraries, but would be able to access any topic online.

Apart from the other aspects, this conference has special focus on web-based methodologies. IGNOU’s participation in the event would help it strengthen its arena of ICT, Web-based methodologies and digitization for promoting seamless access to all.

The Conference includes Tutorials, in which leading researchers and practitioners will present the tutorials to familiarize participants with the new and innovative tools and techniques in Digital Library development, Workshops with international experts, Business sessions, Exhibitors and Valedictory sessions.

February 22, 2010

Computer literacy to Rural India by Year- end

By the end of this year, Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) and Srei Sahaj e-Village Limited will take Advanced Computer Education to Villages in all States of the Country.

Shri A. Raja, Hon’ble Minister for Communications & Information Technology today launched Five programmes, jointly offered by IGNOU and Sahaj.

These programmes will deliver international quality skill development Vocational Programs at affordable costs to the rural population of India. An estimated 100 million rural youth population across the country stands to benefit through the Sahaj-IGNOU partnership.

By the end of 2010,the IGNOU- SREI Sahaj collaboration promises to make this on-line skill education available at 27,255 CSCs in the states of Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai announced, “This is the first time in the country that online education through distance mode will reach the remotest corners of the country, empowering the rural poor. The IGNOU- Sahaj partnership will help bridge the gaping educational divide within the rural landscape and make advanced Computer Education available to the villagers at their doorsteps.”

Total Five courses are currently available as a part of IGNOU- Sahaj partnership. These Sahaj e- Shiksha courses may be broadly categorized into the following, Diploma in Advanced Computers, Certificate Program in – HTML, Certificate Program in - JAVA SCRIPT, Certificate Program in – SQL and Certificate Program in - FLASH.

The eligibility criteria for these programmes is matriculation. All programmes will be accredited to IGNOU for its use. Sahaj will administer the programs including enrolments, registration, fee collection, evaluation and do the certification by IGNOU.

With the use of modern ICT platform of Sahaj available at 12,000 Gram Panchayats, the prestigious IGNOU higher education will be made available to the rural youth in digital format through the Sahaj Common Service Centers (CSCs). The rural youth would have unprecedented opportunities to acquire IGNOU’s internationally recognized certification, diplomas, degrees right in their villages through computerized Sahaj CSCs.

The prestigious partnership aims to make up for the prevalent lack of rated educational institutes in the interior pockets of the nation, help students in the villages get quality education without having to relocate to urban set-ups & spending a lot, as well as to help people who might have had to give up studies to support their family acquire a recognized certificate and make educating the girl child easier, even in orthodox social set-ups

The programs offered have a number of special features like the facility of anytime Education at your students’ comfort zone,affordable Program Costs, Industry-oriented Program curriculum,100% Placement Assistance, Diploma from IGNOU & Sahaj Academy, Recognition by Governments and Employers and the facility to pay in easy instalments.

February 21, 2010

IGNOU to launch MSW from July 2010 in upcoming Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education and Development in Nagaland

“Indira Gandhi National Open University is setting up the Mahatma Gandhi Institue of Education and Development (MGIDE)in collaboration with Nagaland Gandhi Ashram(NGA) in Chuchuyimlang, Nagaland”, announced IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai.

The proposed campus will consist of the School of Social Work, School of Agricultural Development, School of Teacher’s Training, Community College, Cultural Resource and Training Centre- Naga Arts and Crafts and Study Centre with Gandhi Museum.

The School for Social work within the MGIDE campus will be called Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Social Work. The centre will be offering a Face-to- face Post-graduate programme in Social Work.

The MSW programme is expected to be launched from the July 2010 session. The intake of students is expected to be 20-25 in the first year..

The Programme envisages an interdisciplinary approach to education and development. Its thrust is to prepare professionals to promote social welfare and development at the micro and macro levels. It will include ICT enabled learning and full- fledged library support and regular faculty under Educational Development of the North East(EDNERU). Virtual classrooms will also be used to broadcast lectures from Delhi, directly to students at the MGIDE campus.

A Two- Day Expert committee meeting for finalizing the curriculum for the new MSW Programme was held in the IGNOU Main campus from 16th-17th February. The meeting was organized by EDNERU and School of Social Work (SOSW), IGNOU. It is being attended by Subject experts and faculty of various Social Work programmes in the North East. Prof.Gracious Thomas, Director, SOSW and Dr Jayashree Kurup, Dy. Director, EDNERU coordinated the deliberations. The aim of the meeting was to contextualize the MSW programme for the North-East region.

The other proposed Schools at MGIDE will offer programmes at the graduate and post graduate levels and will share their expertise with one another in field work, extension and practice.

Professor R.R. Singh, former Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Professor, School of Social Work, Delhi University, will coordinate and monitor the activities pertaining to the MGIDE.

The MGIDE campus is coming up on 20 acres of land donated by the Village Council of Chuchuyimlang. Noted Gandhian and Founder of Nagaland Gandhi Ashram , Natwar Thakkar is the leading light behind the establishment of the IGNOU-NGA Educational Project.

February 19, 2010

IGNOU Empowering Women

At 55 percent, Madhya Pradesh has the highest malnutrition figures in the country for children under 3. And Vidisha district is one of the worst performers in the state. Things are, however, slowly changing for the better.

And leading this quiet revolution are women like Suman Lodhi, Sarvesh Malviya and Sita Saxena – women who have been empowered by IGNOU.

They are among the 1,014 anganwadi workers who underwent training as part of a programme launched by IGNOU in association with UNICEF and the Department of Women and Child Development of Madhya Pradesh, to better deal with child malnourishment and women’s health issues.

The anganwadi movement, launched in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services, was envisaged as the nation’s primary tool against child malnourishment, infant mortality and the health-related problems of young mothers. It began with just 33 centres; today, there are nearly 7.5 lakh anganwadis across the country.

The IGNOU programme is aimed at providing skill-based education to anganwadi workers. And it has really helped, according to Naki Jahan Qureshi, Women and Child Development Officer, Vidisha. “The results have been really quite encouraging,” says Qureshi.So encouraging, that the Madhya Pradesh government is planning to extend the programme to all the districts.

The training modules, conducted in seven development blocks across the district from December 11, 2008, till May 28, 2009, have instilled much-needed self-confidence in the workers, says Qureshi.

The training involved community health, infant care, innovative ways to combat malnutrition, nutritional needs during pregnancy, special needs of adolescent girls, anaemia, issues related to women’s empowerment, immunisation and water purification.

“The idea was to make the workers understand that they are not tasked to just distribute mid-day meals, but to play a larger role — of being a mother, friend or a family member,” says IGNOU’s Dr Harkirat Bains, the coordinator of the programme.

“To make anganwadi workers understand the special needs of women and children, IGNOU developed a set of four books. The books were based on the intellectual levels of anganwadi workers since the challenge was to address the huge educational and language differences among them,” says Dr Bains.

The workshop, however, was not all theory. “The workers were given practical knowledge about the importance of haemoglobin in blood, blood pressure, nutrition, weight-loss and other health-related problems that adolescent girls face,” she adds.

And the programme has visibly empowered the anganwadi workers. “After attending the sessions, they feel more self-confident and are helping women and children understand the benefits of a healthy and wholesome lifestyle,” says Dr Bains.

For Sarvesh Malviya, a worker at an anganwadi near Pedi school, the training was a boon. “It was a challenge to under-stand the needs of girls and children. Today, I feel more confident and am able to address their problems more diligently,” says Malviya, a mother of two.
Similar is the experience of Savita Tiwai, 45, who runs the anganwadi centre near Kartik Chowk. She is today almost like a family doctor for those who visit her.

“The IGNOU trainers helped me understand how best to address the symptoms of anaemia and malnutrition among women and children and the problems teenaged girls face during puberty,” says Tiwai. “The discussions with paediatrics and gynecologists were really helpful.”
Although the training was focused on health issues, the anganwadi workers derived other benefits from it as well.

Take the case of Manju Srivastava. Posted at Vidya Nagar anganwadi centre, Srivastava is today an expert in waste management, thanks to the training sessions. And she now creates beautiful toys for kids from waste products.

The quiet change sweeping Vidisha has not gone unnoticed. While Madhya Pradesh intends to take the IGNOU programme to all its districts, other states have evinced interest as well.

“Chhattisgarh is keen to implement the programme in the state and has approached us,” says IGNOU Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, adding that the project may soon also be launched in Assam.
The small step taken in Vidisha may well prove a big leap for the 5.7 crore malnourished children in the country.

February 17, 2010

From IGNOU to Country Head

Meet Mithilesh Kumar, a civil engineer by profession and currently the country head of Layher Scaffolding Systems Pvt. Ltd., a firm that specialises in scaffolding and roofing systems.

In his own words, “The journey to the top post was made easy with my four years at IGNOU’s School of Engineering and Technology, pursuing B. Tech (construction management)”.

“The beauty of this programme was the industry-oriented courseware, such as design detailing, construction works supervision and repair and maintenance of buildings, that are not available in the curricula of other universities in the country,” says Kumar, who did his M. Tech in civil engineering from IIT-Roorkee.

“Face-to-face counselling sessions over the weekend with Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) professors, study programmes on Gyan Darshan and FM channel Gyan Vani, e-gyankosh and National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) materials, etc., helped me a lot during my B. Tech,” says Kumar.

He has written several papers and articles like ‘Scaffolding with More Possibilities’ and ‘The Art of Scaffolding Systems,’ among others, for magazines like Civil Engineering & Construction Review.

At Layher, he leads the business development section that covers design, strategic planning and marketing.

February 16, 2010

LAW PROGRAMMES OF IGNOU

Admissions for law programmes jointly by Indira Gandhi Open University(IGNOU) and Rainmaker are open now.

These are online programmes(Master of Intellectual Property Law --> www.ignouonline.ac.in/mipl , Post –Graduate Diploma in Legal Process Outsourcing --> www.ignouonline.ac.in/pgdlpo , Post –Graduate Certificate in Cyber Law --> www.ignouonline.ac.in and distance education programmes (Diploma in Paralegal Practice and other Law Programmes)

In the two year Master of Intellectual Property Law ,Law graduates have the added option to obtain a dual certification by studying at the QUT(Queensland University of Technology) in Australia. It is open to graduates from any discipline.

One year Post –Graduate Diploma in Legal Process Outsourcing is open to law graduates including final year students. Top performer are offered internship with LPO industry leaders.

Six – Month Post –Graduate Certificate in Cyber Law is open to graduate from any discipline and Final year students of the 5-year integrated law programme.One year Diploma in Paralegal Practice is available through distance mode and eligibility is 10+2 or equivalent or BPP from IGNOU.

Other School of Law Programmes include Ph.D in law, Diploma in Intellectual, Property Rights, P.G Certification in Patent Practice, Certificate in Human Rights, Certificate in Consumer Protection.

Programmes commence on March 1,2010 and Last date for enrolment is March 31,2010 A late fee of Rs.200 on all enrollments between March 1 to March 31,2010.Programmes are being delivered and managed by Rainmaker. Prospective students may also contact Rainmaker for additional information on the programmes.

February 14, 2010

IGNOU to launch Certificate Programme in Dialysis Medicine in collaboration with Directorate General of Health Services

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU)signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Directorate General of Health Services (Dte. G.H.S) for launching a Post Doctoral Certificate programme in Dialysis Medicine. The landmark programme is expected to be offered by IGNOU’s School of Health Sciences(SOHS) from the July 2010 session.

In his presidential address at the ceremony, which was telecast live , Dr. DK Chaudhary, Pro-Vice Chancellor, IGNOU said, ”The Post Doctoral Certificate in Dialysis Medicine is a year long programme and is being offered through the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) mode. The programme is expected to fulfill the need of trained Health manpower in the field of Dialysis at the district level.”

The one year programme, includes six months of skill development training at the Nephrology departments of 10 centres. These centres have been already been jointly identified by IGNOU and Dte. G.H.S.

Speaking on the occasion, the Guest of Honour, Dr. RK Srivastava, Director General of Health Services said,“Dialysis is a life saving therapy for patients suffering from chronic renal failure and it affects a large number of people in the country. These patients move from one hospital to another, seeking redressal, dialysis and kidney replacement. Dialysis requires the services of nephrologists, which requires 5 years’ training after an MBBS degree. We plan to train 250 doctors in dialysis in two years, through this Post Doctoral Certificate programme. This will go a long way in helping patients, especially those living in the countryside.”

February 12, 2010

ICDL 2010 aims to network, digitize world libraries

New Delhi : World’s libraries with rich repositories and connective links to the identified topics will soon be available online for students, researchers, scholars, teachers, trainers, writers, artists, evaluators and all other inquisitive members of the knowledge society. They will get access to solutions and the linkages to their topics.

Experts from over 30 nations will present in the third International conference on digital libraries, ICDL 2010, at India Habitat Centre beginning 23rd for four days here what they consider to be the solution to knowledge barriers in online libraries.

A vast canvas has been created for the agenda such as : How digitization modules can be used for converting the entire corpus of existing print and manuscript resources into digitized format, how education and libraries can be interlinked through web world, what is the latest in the semantic web in an automated sense, etc.

The challenge is being seen as extremely difficult for the knowledge society world over today, on which over 30 internationally celebrated experts in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) would deliberate. The conference is organized jointly by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi.

Explaining the concept, IGNOU Pro Vice Chancellor and India’s leading ICT expert Prof K R Srivathsan said that today’s students do not want to go to libraries, but would love to pursue knowledge through web. So it is necessary to customise the libraries online, network all libraries of the world for all domains of knowledge for sharing, research and development. The key theory is to ensure that the value from information must link the due references to the contexts of knowledge, for example, the law consulting web. One can get relevant reports of a context automatically linked to the main context. There are other areas also, such as multimedia, e-content, e-Books, i-pads, which can allow you gather knowledge easily, or enjoy reading a book through your mobile phone lying on a railway berth while travelling.

Solutions to more difficult part of the challenge will be presented. This challenge is how to make the entire corpus of knowledge accessible to students, researchers, scholars, teachers, trainers, writers, artists, evaluators and all other inquisitive members of the knowledge society.

The conference will also address a good deal of copyright issues tagged to the corpus in the print and manuscript resources, and evolve regulatory policies required to handle the intellectual property rights issues. A team of experts will constitute a Recommendation Committee to examine during the four days the presentations on technical problems, issues and challenges and submit recommendations to governments of India and abroad. As ICDL is a series of conferences, starting from 2004, it matured over the years to be the advisory body to create new digital paradigm for libraries.

The ICDL 2010 will be inaugurated by Union HRD minister Shri Kapil Sibal at 6 p.m. at the IHC. Smt D Purandaeswari, MOS, HRD will be the guest of honour. IGNOU Vice Chancellor Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai, TERI DG and Nobel Laureate Mr R K Pachauri, and Prof N Balakrishnan of Indian Institute of Scuence, Bangalore are the co-chairs of the ICDL 2010.

The conference will have two-parts. In the first part, on the inaugural day on the 23rd right from the morning, a workshop will be conducted at IGNOU Convention Centre to initiate the participants into the concept of the ICDL 2010. The workshop will have four sessions in each half of Feb 23rd addressed by Prof Paul Nieuwenhuysen of Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Prof Sally Jo Cunningham of University of Waikato, New Zealand, Prof Daniel Chandran of University of Technology, Sydney, Australia and Prof K R Srivathsan, IGNOU in the first half of the day. Prof Andreas Rauber of Vienna University of Technology, Austria, Dr Hiranmay Ghosh of Tata Consultancy Services, India, Dr Alejandro Bia of Universiad Miguel Hernandez, Spain and a professor from IGNOU’s NCIDE will initiate the participants in the second half of the workshop.

On each day of the next three days, there will be a plenary session in which an eminent scholar of ICT will deliver the key note address on the day’s theme. The parallel sessions will follow to discuss technical problems, issues and challenges.

February 10, 2010

IGNOU launches open course guide for MCA, CIT students

New Delhi : Indira Gandhi National Open University today launched an open course guide (IOCG) system for the learners of MCA and CIT. The IOCG is a next generation framework of open e-learning. It is IGNOU’s new innovation in the domain of Information and Communication Technology. The system can translate the content in Hindi instantaneously, which will make the programmes more learner-friendly.

The (IOCG) is based on the platform of Open Distributed Technology-Enabled Learning (ODTEL) framework is developed by the Advanced Centre for Informatics and Innovative Learning (ACIIL) of the university under the guidance of Prof K R Srivathsan, Pro Vice Chancellor, an ICT technocrat.

IOCG is the first of its kind open e-Learning system anywhere which effectively addresses the complex course events management required for open education programmes. It promotes better interactions among the course instruction team, students and counsellors, asserts Prof Srivathsan.

The IOCGs for the MCA and CIT programmes have following features :

(i) Programme and Course Headers for IGNOU related information;
(ii) Course Wiki area for the course coordinator, expert teams, counsellors, students and interested communities who can post course related supplementary content for enriching the study and promoting web-community;
(iii) Query and Messaging Services referred to as 'IGNOU Prashnottari Sewa' (IPS);
(iv) Counselling plan that outlines detailed week-by-week activities and guidance to students;
(v) Open discussion forum for students and between students, instruction team and interested persons.

The IOCG for the MCA and CIT Programs are are accessible from the IOCG Wiki pages:

http://iocg.ignou.ac.in/wiki/index.php/Master_of_Computer_Applications

http://iocg.ignou.ac.in/wiki/index.php/CIT:Certificate_in_Information_Technology

To these, plans are afoot to add the Students Satisfaction Survey with built-in analytics and visualization for each course and programme.

Explaining the software, Prof K R Srivathsan said that the IOCG pages are set over an open Wiki area. For each course, the IOCG serves as an interactive 'Community Dashboard' for the concerned course coordinator, the counsellors, registered students and anyone interested in the courses of IGNOU.

IOCG supports pedagogically disciplined modes of engaging the learners and managing course events through multiple modes. These modes are study materials, recorded video lectures, multimedia and mobile content, course wiki, discussion forums, TV, webinar and community radio sessions and where desired a Learning Management System is also provided.

February 10, 2010

Six new Gyan Vani Channels

Today, the Hon’ble Minister of the State for Information & Broadcasting Shri Chaudhury Mohan Jatua launched 6 new Gyan Vani FM Radio stations at Agra, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Srinagar, Trichy and Thiruvanathapuram at the Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU),New Delhi on the occation of a decade of Gyan Darshan , Educational TV Channel of India, of IGNOU.

These 6 FM channels are in addition to 31 stations already existing. Launched in November, 2001 Gyan Vani is an education FM Radio channel operating through several FM stations from various cities in the country. Gyan Vani aims to enhance and supplement the teaching-learning process by reaching the learners through a low cost popular mass medium using interactive formats.

Gyan Vani Stations operate as media cooperatives with the day today programmes contributed by various educational institutions such as NCERT, NIOS, IGNOU and State Open Universities, NGOs, Ministries, government organizations and foreign broadcasters. Gyan Vani radio stations enjoy sufficient autonomy as they are guided by local Steering Committees consisting of representatives of various stakeholders and eminent educationists. EMPC provides vital linkages for policy planning, monitoring, budgeting and administrative support.

Each Gyan Vani Station has a range of about 60 kms and covers and entire city/town including the adjoining rural areas, Gyan Vani serves as an ideal medium for niche audience addressing the local educational, developmental and socio-cultural requirements. Renowned experts are drawn from the region for talks, lectures and discussions. Live phone-in progrmmes are popular components of the network.

The Gyan Darshan – I Channel, which was launched on January 26th 2000 with an initial four hours transmissions is today, free to air, round the clock TV channel, reaching out to millions of viewers across the subcontinent. The Channel is today, Kaleidoscope offering a wide variety of education programmes for diverse audiences. The major stake holders / contributing organizations for this channel are IGNOU, UGC, NCERT, IIT, NITTTR, Different Ministries, and Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan etc. Subsequently exclusive channels were launched within Gyan Darshan bouquet to address the specific needs of different sectors of higher education. Accordingly, GD – II serves to distance learners through real time interactive programmes. Gyan Darshan – III (Eklavya), offers programmes for vocational and technical education and GD – IV (Vayas), serves to higher education sector. Plans are afoot to launch Gyan Darshan – V channel which will be dedicated exclusively to the programme on science, technology and sustainable development. The test transmission for this channel is already underway from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The programmes for this channel are being introduced by IGNOU, Vigyan Prasar, DST, Deutche welle, Transtel etc. As per recent TAM data the channel enjoys a viewership of 8% in the seven metro cities of India.

February 9, 2010

IGNOU turns the spotlight on education of children in war-torn Palestine

“The UN Refugee Welfare and Advocacy (UNRWA) run schools encourage children to attend school 365 days a week”, stated Prof M.B. Menon, its Chief (Education) at Jordon. This, he said, keeps them away from the clutches of the religious fundamentalists.

He was delivering a lecture on “Educating Children in a Fragile Environment- Palestine Context”, at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Maidan Garhi campus.

It was chaired by Prof. KR Srivathsan, Pro Vice Chancellor, IGNOU and organized by School of Education of IGNOU.

Speaking on his own personal experience in Palestine , Prof Menon said,” Palestinian children are extremely motivated about education. They think that education will provide them a way out of the mess and get them to US and a better life. The major problem facing the UNRWA is Coverage and Quality of education. Children with special needs, with stress and trauma are not being covered through the education programmes. Arabic and mathematics remain problems for children. Another big problem is the issue of violence in schools.”

Prof. Menon’s main focus , as the manager of the UNRWA project in education, is using education as a Recovery Programme for Palestinian children. UNRWA is providing Elementary education till 10 th standard in the region, with a strong emphasis on vocational/ Technical programmes.

The UNRWA was started by the United Nations to take care of problems related to refugees, 60 years back.

The lecture –presentation was followed by a discussion.

February 5, 2010

IGNOU charts blue print for Commonwealth meet on ODL

New Delhi : Indira Gandhi National Open University is humming with activities to chart a blue print for holding the 6th Pan Commonwealth Forum (PCF6) conference on 'Access and Success: Global Development Perspectives to Learning for Development', from 24 to 28 November at Le Meridien, Kochi.

A meeting on last Wednesday (Feb 3, 10) of the Directors of Schools and high officials of the university, chaired by Vice Chancellor Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai, as the Co-Chairperson of the PCF6, took a number of decisions for the conference.

One of the novel decisions is that a complete session in the conference will be assigned to successful internationally reputed professionals who studied through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) pedagogy. They will deliberate on various aspects of community development through ODL and other themes. Eminent scholars who scaled themselves up in the ladder of success are likely to be the key speakers at this session of the 4-day brainstorming Conference on development of Open and Distance Learning in Commonwealth countries.

The PCF6 website will be further spruced up to invite applications from these professionals and expertise, the meeting decided.

The PCF is the biennial conference on worldwide Open Learning, started by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL). Earlier five PCFs were held in Brunei, Darussalam (PCF1); Durban, South Africa, (PCF2); Dunedin, New Zealand (PCF3); Ocho Rios, Jamaica (PCF4), and London, UK (PCF5). The PCF6 is awarded to India and IGNOU is hosting the forum for the country. Over time, the PCF has turned out to be a sought-after conference of the world and is often regarded to be a movement.
There will be four themes in the PCF6, which are :

• Social Justice
• Community Development
• Skills Development, and
• Formal Education
The cross-cutting issues -- Gender, Disabilities and Quality – also could be discussed under the above main themes.

The organizers are inviting researchable papers in various aspects under these four main themes, even as over 300 abstracts have already been received, over 200 of them are from abroad. Considering the flow of abstracts submitted already, which is likely to go up by another 200 plus, the organizers are also mulling to stage two Pre-PCF6 and Post-PCF6 conferences.

Eminent speakers on development issues will be invited to deliver key note addresses for every plenary session. There will be one plenary session for each sub-theme followed by subsequent parallel sessions and discussion by panels.

The PCF6 will be chaired by distinguished scientist Professor MS Swaminathan.

There will be two Co-Chairs of the Conference -- Sir John Daniel, President and Chief Executive Officer of Commonwealth of Learning (COL), and Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, IGNOU Vice Chancellor and Chairman of the Distance Education Council (DEC).

Director of IGNOU Staff Training Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE) Prof PR Ramanujam has been appointed as the Programme Chair. Prof Manohar Khushalani, former director of Environment Management at Central Water Commission and member secretary of National Environmental Monitoring Committee for River Valley Projects has been selected as the PCF6 Conference Manager. Prof Khushalani is also a noted thespian.

February 5, 2010

Abolish Manual Scavenging: Dr Bezwada Wilson, Safai Karamchari Sanghatana

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) organized a lecture on “Inhuman Practices of Manual Scavenging: Cleaning up shit” in the IGNOU’s Main Campus today.

The lecture was delivered by Dr Berzada Wilson, President, Safai Karamchari Sanghatana(SKA). The lecture was followed by screening of Documentary on” Lesser Humans”. Dr Wilson is involved in a movement to eradicate manual scavenging since 1986,which was later formalized as the SKA in 1996.

The lecture was coordinated by IGNOU’s ‘Dr Ambedkar Chair on Social Change and Development’, a part of the School of Social Science and convened by Prof Vimal Thorat, IGNOU.

The lecture emphasized the social basis behind the practice of manual Scavenging in the country, the reality of the life of a manual scavenger and the response by SKA.

Dr Wilson remarked that manual scavengers fall at the very lowest category of sanitation workers in the country, after sweepers, sewerage workers and septic tank cleaners. There are 6.76 lakh manual safai karamcharis (manual scavengers) in India, though unofficial figures put the figure at 13 lakhs, he said.
He further remarked that the practice of manual scavenging has been banned in the country since 1993, but still continues, in few government institutions.

Delineating the ideological basis of this inhuman practice, Dr Wilson said,” Manual scavenging is considered one of the lowest, polluted and most degrading occupations. The caste system dictates that those born into particular Dalit sub-castes should enagage in manual scavenging , and should remain doing so throughout their lives.”

Dr Wilson was born into a Dalit community in Karnataka. His family was engaged in traditional manual scavenging. He is a post graduate in Political Science and was elected in alternative ‘25 people who will never make it to the power list’ by Outlook magazine . He was also elected as Ashoka Senior Fellow in the Year 2009 from India.

Some of the other main achievements of Dr Wilson’s SKA include a PIL petition filed by it in 2003, which resulted in the Supreme Court demanding affidavits from various states. Most states were in denial mode about manual scavenging , but SKA proved the existence of dry latrines with video and photographic evidence , and they were later forced to demolish them.

Dr Wilson is dedicated to total eradication of manual scavenging from India. SKA has made a planning call ’Action 2010’ for the purpose to eradicate manual scavenging by 31st December, 2010.

February 5, 2010

Abolish Manual Scavenging: Dr Bezwada Wilson, Safai Karamchari Sanghatana

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) organized a lecture on “Inhuman Practices of Manual Scavenging: Cleaning up shit” in the IGNOU’s Main Campus today.

The lecture was coordinated by IGNOU’s ‘Dr Ambedkar Chair on Social Change and Development’, a part of the School of Social Science and convened by Prof Vimal Thorat, IGNOU.

The lecture emphasized the social basis behind the practice of manual Scavenging in the country, the reality of the life of a manual scavenger and the response by SKA.

Dr Wilson is dedicated to total eradication of manual scavenging from India. SKA has made a planning call ’Action 2010’ for the purpose to eradicate manual scavenging by 31st December, 2010.

February 3, 2010

IGNOU announces Entrance tests for Openmat –XXVII & Openden-II

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is conducting Entrance tests for Management Programmes (Openmat-XXVII) and Openden-II, for Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology and Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics on Sunday, 7th February, 2010, between 10 am to 1pm.

The entrance test is for the academic session starting July 2010.

The Entrance Test is being organized in 131 examination centres , accommodating 18,061(16,712+1,349)candidates for Management (Openmat-XXVII) and Openden-II programmes. All candidates are advised to report at the Examination centre 45 minutes before commencement of the Entrance test.

The Hall tickets have already been dispatched to the candidates by IGNOU. The particulars of Hall tickets are also available on the IGNOU website, www.ignou.ac.in.

In case of non-receipt of Hall ticket by any candidate, it can be downloaded from the University website by entering Name and Date of Birth of the candidate.

In case candidates are unable to download the Hall ticket, they can contact the Regional Centre and obtain the information of Examination Centre allocated and report to the Examination Centre with proof of submission of Entrance test application form, along with a recent passport size photograph. In this case, they have to submit an undertaking at the Examination Centre stating that if the information furnished by them is found to be incorrect, their candidature will be cancelled.

IGNOU has deputed Central observers in all the 131examination centres to ensure smooth conduct of the entrance test.

February 2, 2010

IGNOU Students Placed with Package of Lakhs

Six students enrolled in Indira Gandhi National Open University’s(IGNOU) Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Safety, Health and Environment Management -PGDM(ISHE) have been selected for the post of Safety officers in leading cement plants across India at a package of 5.5 lac/annum. The students will be paid a stipend of Rs. 29,000/pm for the first 6 months.

The students were selected during campus placement held on 22 January 2010 at the Institute of Industrial Management for Safety, Health and Environment (IIMSHE) Bhopal,a partner of IGNOU.

Out of a batch size of 45 students, 32 students have already been placed. The next campus interview is slated for 10th February 2010 in the IIMSHE campus and the left-over students are also expected to be placed successfully.

The PGDM (ISHE) is being offered by IGNOU’s School of Engineering Technology(SOET).

January 31, 2010

IGNOU taking Soft-skill training to BPL Youth

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) is set to educate & train Below Poverty Line (BPL) youth in six states of UP, Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Orissa and Tamil Nadu, announced IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. Five vocational training and educational programmes have been identified for online delivery. These are Certificate programmes in Computer Basics, Advanced Computing, Job Training and Interview Etiquette, along with a Diploma in Advanced Computing. The proposed programmes will be offered online from application to certification stages.

The programmes will be conducted through a Common Service Centre (CSC) in each village panchayat office at the six selected states of Assam, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar , UP and Tamil Nadu.

IGNOU has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with SREI Sahaj e-village Ltd., a Kolkata based company which is implementing the CSC project in six short-listed states.

Sahaj is setting up one ICT enabled centre per 10,000 of rural population. They have already obtained a mandate from the Department of Information Technology (DIT) to set up over 27,000 CSCs at these states at the village panchayat level, within the current fiscal year.

Teachers from nearby areas are being hired to teach and guide the IGNOU students in every village panchayat.

The concept of CSCs is especially helpful to women and children of the villages and the BPL families who for various socio-economic reasons can’t travel far for attending schools or training institutes.

The IGNOU Certificate programmes are for six months each, while the Diploma programme will be for a year. After clearing the certificate or the diploma programme, the successfull candidates will be given employment. The students will also be given opportunities to enroll for the programmes of IGNOU on a flexi-mode of learning system.

According to Prof. Pandav Nayak, the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the Regional Institute of Vocational Education and Training-East Zone (RIVET-EZ) project, “ RIVET is a part of IGNOU initiatives to provide education at the grassroots. For the eight states in the North-East, a RIVET type IGNOU Institute of Vocational Education and Training (IIVET) has already been made functional at Shillong, Meghalaya. Four more RIVETS will be set up soon for other zones of the country.

January 24, 2010

IGNOU gears up to plug the Skill Deficit

“In India there are over 2,50,000 public educational and training institutions, all of which can become skill-development centres without affecting the formal teaching and other activities during class hours. These can be harnessed to provide skills to the untrained youth of the country. IGNOU with its country-wide network of 2,500 Study centres has the greatest potential in the country to address the issue of skill deficit in Indian youth,” said IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, in the forthcoming issue of IGNOU’s OpenLetter.

He further remarked that these Regional and study centres can network with local educational and training institutions for providing modular skills in different trades and vocations. “Linking with the activities of the local micro , small and medium enterprises and grassroots-level civil society organizations, skill upgradation initiatives are being taken up by the Community College Centres, through the two –year Associate Degree programme by a credit accumulation process. Vertically integrated engineering programme, assessment and certification of prior learning and the telecentre movement for skill- upgradation, the village knowledge and resource centres and the collaboration with the rural NGOs are the recent IGNOU interventions in the skill development sectors,” the VC said.

It is estimated that India has the capacity to create 500 million certified technicians and skilled workers by 2020. In this context, 2010-2020 has been declared as the ‘Decade of Innovation’ by the Government.

Speaking on the skill deficit among Indian youth, Prof. Pillai stated “Creating opportunities for our youth to become the largest pool of skilled and technically trained human resource is the greatest challenge before us in this decade. This would enhance the Gross enrollment ratio, along with providing opportunities to our young population and large number of school drop-outs. As an Open University with flexible and innovative educational, training and skill-building capabilities, we need to lay more emphasis on these objectives of the National Skills Mission,” Prof. Pillai remarked.

January 21, 2010

Peace has good chance in J&K, inclusive education can bring it: ADG Sabharwal

New Delhi : Al-Quaida or the types of terrorist groups can not cause injury to Indian Army because the Indian Army is much advanced technologically. We are more focused on ensuring the indicators of normalcy in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, said Lt General Mukesh Sabharwal, Adjutant General of Indian Army at an interaction with media persons today.

Delivering the third Silver Jubilee Lecture at IGNOU, Lt Gen Sabharwal said, “Today there are cases when the arrested terrorists approach us requesting to admit their children in schools for general studies and development inclusively in the mainstream of the society. They realized their mistake.”

Generations are changing. Referring to the Pakistani tribals’ invasion of India at the dawn of Independence, Lt Gen Sabharwal said the people of Kashmir were motivated against the Pakistani aggressions right from those early days of our Independence. After the signature of the Instrument of Accession in favour of India on October 26, 1947, which was accepted by the then Governor General next day, the troops were rushed to vacate the aggression. The Army fought sustained battle with the tribals and after several sacrifices pushed them out of the Valley and other areas in the Jammu region. At that point, people of Kashmir were mobilized to resist the enemy. Till the arrival of troops, it was mainly the Muslim volunteers under Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah who braved death to push back the invaders. There are several instances where people put up a gallant resistance and stopped the advance of the invaders.

“Internal security is a reality and cannot be wished away. We need to strengthen the local responders. These involve capacity-building of the state police, para-military and civil forces, inclusive education and effort to change hearts. The responders need to see eventualities. Gyan Deep is an excellent opportunity to this direction”, Lt Gen Sabharwal said. For this, presence of the mainstream media in the Kashmir is very important, he said, adding that the local media people have many kinds of slants and favours, and their reports are not conducive enough to ensure inclusive growth of the society.

Asked if the Army was trying to do any thing to establish the country’s mainstream media houses in the state and protect them enough to function freely, a brigadier who accompanied the Lt Gen Sabharwal said that such possibilities may be realized in gradual process.

After getting defeated in three wars and two adventurous movements, Pakistan today has wielded proxy wars through terrorism, that too by importing foreigners in terrorist activities. However, the good sign is, increasingly people of Jammu and Kashmir are realizing the futility of these proxy wars. By 2004 the terrorist activities were reduced to 100.

Peace is possible through development measures. Indian Army has taken a number of steps to empower the unemployed youth, women, ensure justice in the civil administration, as Army believes that the fulcrum of all operations being the populace, all operations must aim at isolating the terrorists from the populace through people-friendly operations.

“There are two bus services between India and Pakistan. These are Uri-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalkote buses. Feedback received from the passengers who have taken these buses reveals that the grass is definitely greener on the India side,” Lt Gen Sabharwal said. Today the statistics between 1985 and 2005 speak for themselves. The per capita income in Kashmir has increased by six times from Rs 2,874 to Rs 17,174. The people below poverty line (BPL) of the state are 8 to 12 times lesser in number than those in other states. The Imports and industry have increased in the state several times with taxable export value improved from Rs 89,000 lakh to Rs 6,33,000 lakh.

In tourism alone the state recorded 4.75 lakh in 2009. Indeed Ladakhis and Kasmiris have excellent opportunities of growth.

The function was presided over by Vice Chancellor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. Prof Salil Mishra gave a critique of the Lecture as a discussant. Pro Vice Chancellor Dr Latha Pillai gave the vote of thanks.

January 21, 2010

Security Forces need Legal Provisions to function effectively in J & K- Lt General Mukesh Sabharwal

Lt. General Mukesh Sabharwal, Adjutant General, Indian Army today outlined internal security arrangements in Jammu and Kashmir.

He was delivering a lecture on “Internal Security in Jammu and Kashmir: Historical Perspective and Emerging Scenario”, as a part of the Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) Silver Jubilee Lecture today in the IGNOU Maidan Garhi campus.

Remarking on the role of the security forces in the future, Gen Sabharwal said,“In order to operate effectively, security forces need necessary legal provisions to permit them to function/operate. Any dilution of protective laws for security forces could thus be damaging. Such laws are the only safeguard for security forces, and give them the requisite legal framework which permits them to conduct proactive operations against terrorists”.

He further remarked that internal security is a reality and cannot be wished away. For internal security, there is a need to strengthen the local first responders. This involves capacity building of the State police forces, to include training of State police and the Central Reserve Police Force. The importance of leadership of the Paramilitary Forces also cannot be overemphasized, he said. “All first responders need to be empowered. First responders need to foresee, rehearse and train for eventualities. Thereafter, we gradually need to reduce the Army’s visibility, especially in cities/along roads, “General Sabharwal added.

General Sabharwal stated that there is an urgent need to reduce the Army’s visibility, especially in cities and along roads. There is a requirement of having enough security forces, suitably trained, armed and deployed so as to operate where required within a timeframe, which enables their being effective. The form of mobility chosen could vary from vehicle based mobility to mobility on foot, combining speed with surprise.

Excellent communications are essential to enable security forces to operate effectively within their given areas. In turn, for these to be effective, intelligence is a must. This is best gathered through the populace, which in Jammu and Kashmir has been largely won over, convinced of the just cause of the Nation.

Another important issue, which must be given due significance in the valley, according to Gen. Sabharwal, is governance and development. “It would be desirable for more industries to mushroom in Jammu and Kashmir, and for the national media to proliferate to an ever greater degree. Development of the state is perhaps single most important factor, essential for bringing lasting peace to the state. While there is no gainsaying the fact that the levels of development in Jammu and Kashmir out-distance the levels of development in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and the Northern Areas, increasing levels of development can help the greater cause of restoring normalcy to the State,” declared Lt. General Mukesh Sabharwal.

The IGNOU Silver Jubilee Lecture was chaired by IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. The Lecture was coordinated by Dr. Latha Pillai, Pro Vice Chancellor,IGNOU and it was attended by eminent guests, academics , students and staff of IGNOU.

Prof. Salil Misra, School of Social Sciences, IGNOU, presented the Discussant’s Remarks after the lecture. The lecture was followed by an open discussion.

January 17, 2010

IGNOU World’s Largest University- UNESCO

“IGNOU is the largest University in the world’,according to the UNESCO website: www.unesco.org.

“Enrollments of nearly three million students and networks across the country making the best use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) – IGNOU’s accomplishments are recognised worldwide”, declared Ms Irina Bokova, Director General UNESCO.

“Almost three million students in India and 33 other countries study at IGNOU which is also India’s National Resource Centre for Open and Distance Learning and a world leader in distance education. Through its 21 schools of study, 59 regional centres, 2300 learner support centres and some 52 overseas centres, the university offers certificate, diploma, degree and doctoral programmes, comprising around 1500 courses, the university provides access to sustainable and learner-centred education and training to all through quality, innovative and needs-based programmes at affordable costs, thus reaching out to the disadvantaged. It promotes, coordinates and regulates the standards of education offered through open and distance learning in India,”quoted the UNESCO Website.

The website further announced that,” IGNOU’s staff consist of 380 faculty members and academic staff in headquarters and regional centres while some 36,000 counsellors from conventional institutions of higher learning and professionals from different spheres. With the launch of EduSat (a satellite dedicated only to education) in 2004, and the establishment of the Inter-University Consortium, IGNOU has ushered in a new era of technology-enabled education.”

“Today, there are 134 active video-conferencing centres; all regional, sub-regional and high enrolment study centres have been connected, and exchanges using interactive digital content are possible. Emphasis is currently on developing interactive multimedia and online learning. Using these innovative technologies and methodologies, IGNOU ensures the convergence of existing systems to achieve the goal of ensuring access to Education for All, providing continual professional development and training and promoting integrated national development and global understanding,” according to the UNESCO website.

January 15, 2010

IGNOU and TERI to hold Conference on Digital Libraries

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) are jointly organizing the International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) 2010 as part of IGNOU’s Silver Jubilee Year celebrations. ICDL 2010 is proposed to be organized during 23-26 February 2010 in New Delhi.

The theme of the three-day conference is ‘Digital Libraries: Shaping the Information Paradigm’ and the focus is on the strengths and potential of digital libraries and their role in education, cultural, social and economic development. ICDL 2010 is the third conference in TERI’s ‘International Conference on Digital Libraries’ series.

The Speakers in the conference would be Prof. Michael Seadle ,Director, Berlin School of Library and Information Science, Prof. Dr Erich J Neuhold
Professor, Computer Science, University of Vienna, Austria and Edie Rasmussen ,Professor and Director, School of Library, Archival
and Information Studies, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

The Conference will include Tutorials, in which leading researchers and practitioners will present the tutorials to familiarize participants with the new and innovative tools and techniques DL development, Workshops with international experts,Business sessions, Exhibitors and Valedictory sessions.

January 11, 2010

Give Peace a chance, don’t piece humanity, family : Karan Singh urges world leaders

New Delhi : This world needs to develop Peace Economy and Peace Environment. Let us shun spending multi-billion dollars in flourishing the war infrastructure. What is needed is to develop counterveiling mechanism to give Peace a chance, said veteran champion of peace and culture, Dr Karan Singh.

Dr Singh was delivering the key note address in the international conference on ‘Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Peace Science’ organized jointly by Indira Gandhi National Open University, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti and Unesco.

The conference is also a Silver Jubilee year activity of the university in the run up for establishing its 22nd school, ‘School of Gandhian and Peace Studies (SOGPS)’, passed by the 100th meeting of the Board of Management on July 4, 2009.

Former Governor of Tamil Nadu Bhism Narain Singh inaugurated the conference. New York State University Professor Manas Chatterjee explained the objectives of the conference. Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti Director Savita Singh, Honorary Director of IGNOU’s Gandhian Studies Programme Pro RP Mishra, and Prof D Gopal, professor of IGNOU Political Science department were present on the dais.

There are four C’s people need to abstain from, Dr Singh said, “These are Communalism, Casteism, Corruption and Criminalisation.” He said that people definitely need to attack the manufacturing of poverty to make the world fit to live. Terming the 20th century as the bloodiest, he said, “Most people died in the 20th Century than ever before. After two Wars, people who died of civil wars are more than those who lost life in those Wars.”

Dr Singh suggested that there are six dimensions which humanity can develop. He said, “The first is Peace from wars, the very attitude of aggression (civil wars) defeats the purpose of peace. Rajiv Gandhi had convened a 6-nation-5-Continent Plan which could have been a well-sustainable move. The second dimension is Peace from Regional Conflicts. We can create like they did in Europe with the concept European Parliament. Pound, Lira, Fran, Deuschemark, etc all submerged to create Euro, which is running very well all over Europe, We could have one for SAARC and Latin American countries. The third dimension is Peace from within. Insurgency, naxalism, local strifes all can be solved. The fourth dimension is, religion as a great assimilator. No religion has tenets to preach violence. We do not care much for the annual event, the Parliament of Religion, a move which started from Chicago. The fifth dimension is Family Peace. Let us develop a rational approach to consolidate familial bonds. Let us shun the extreme familial detachment of the West and extreme possessiveness of the East. The last dimension is Inner Peace, which come from within us. The Unesco started the Inner Peace movement for sometime, and Indian Vedas have the best saying about it in the Shanti Paath.”

The Peace Conference was attended by as many as 20 top world experts across the disciplines of Geography, Mathematics, Economics, Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, Psychology, International Relations, History, Religious, Gender and Defence studies and others. Scholars from universities of USA, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Spain, Poland, China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, besides India, are presenting their latest findings on issues relating to Peace Economy and Conflict Management.

Four of them are Nobel laureates. They are : Walter Isard (Economics, Geography,), founder of the discipline of Peace Science, Kenneth Arrow (Economics), Bruce Martin Russet (Political Science & Conflict Management), Kenneth Josef Arrow (Economics) and Michael D Intriligator

A host of inland scholars from research groups, such as Calcutta Research Group, People’s Rights, Bastar, Sustainable Development Society, Allahabad, Delhi Society for Non-Violence etc. have joined the conference to submit their findings for solution of Peace Conflicts.

January 11, 2010

UNESCO collaborates with IGNOU

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) today signed an Agreement of Cooperation (AoC) for identifying special programmes and activities of IGNOU for Co- branding and the development of strategic cooperation through academic exchange and collaboration for advancement of quality education and training.

Her Excellency Ms. Irina G. Bokova, Director General, UNESCO who delivered the IGNOU Silver Jubilee Special Lecture on “Building Inclusive Knowledge Societies in a Globalised World: Opportunities and Risks”, in the IGNOU campus, signed the AoC with IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Prof. VN Rajasekharan Pillai, today.

Under the AoC, IGNOU and UNESCO have decided to collaborate in promoting an integrated system of research, training, demonstration, knowledge management and documentation activities in the fields of journalism and media studies, science education, teacher training and ICT-enhanced distance learning through effective and innovative use of new communication technologies, particularly in the rural, urban and semi urban areas, both in the country and in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The collaboration is also expected to enhance interdisciplinary research, strengthen local and indigenous knowledge systems and developing methods for evaluating and applying science and technology with a view to the development of sustainable practices for human resource development.

Stating that this will be a year to build bridges between cultures and people, Ms Bokova also announced the launch of the International Year of Rapprochement between Cultures, for which UNESCO is the lead agency. “As part of it, we shall be setting up an interdisciplinary programme around the works of three great poets, three resoundingly human and universal voices: Rabindranath Tagore, the Chilean Pablo Neruda and Aimé Césaire from Martinique”, she added.

Speaking about the other future endeavours of UNESCO in the Special Lecture, the Director General said, “Here in India, our General Conference approved the creation of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development, which I am confident will contribute to shaping more inclusive knowledge societies”.

The UNESCO Director General further said that UNESCO will be inaugurating the 2010 edition of the ‘Education for All’ Global Monitoring Report, which will focus on deep inequalities within societies, next week at the United Nations, along with the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The report addresses the scale of deprivation and its underlying causes. It has developed a new tool for measuring marginalization that will help identify the key characteristics of those who are being left behind. The results highlight the powerful influence of social circumstances – being born in a poor household, living in a rural area, speaking a minority language – on life chances.

There are also plans to create a High Level Panel on Peace and Dialogue among cultures composed of eminent persons from all fields and a similar panel on science which will advise UNESCO on the most effective policies to alleviate poverty and promote sustainable development.

The function was presided over by Smt. D. Purandeswari, Honorable Minister of State, Human Resource Development and chaired by IGNOU VC, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. Mr A. Parsuramen, Director UNESCO(India) was also present.

In her presidential address, Smt. Purandeswari said, “India’s demographic advantage can only be realized if opportunities to the youth expand through education. Education is a powerful driver for socio-economic change and the expansion, inclusion and quality improvement of higher education through more spending and partnerships with private institutions, is the goal of the Indian Government.”

January 10, 2010

Research Vacancies in IGNOU

Consequent upon recent World Bank Project of over Rs. 1 crore to Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU), temporary vacancies of Research Associates (RA) and Senior Research Fellows(SRF) have been created in the University.

Details about the number of posts , applications, terms and conditions are given in IGNOU’s website: www.ignou.ac.in/adv/appointment.htm.

The detailed bio-data including name and address, date of birth, qualifications , experience etc. may be sent to the Principal Investigator, School of Agriculture, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068. It can also be e-mailed to baljitsingh45@yahoo.co.in, Ph-011-29533166,Fax-29533167, latest by 25.1.2010.

IGNOU’s School of Agriculture has got the research grant of Rs. 1.04 Crores to undertake the prestigious project on ”Innovations in Technology Mediated Learning”-under ICAR-NAIP Project(Indian Council of Agricultural Research –National Agriculture Innovation Project).

The vision of the project is to create a community of National Agricultural Educators and Researchers who will teach and add the latest learning material, contributing to sustainable agriculture and poverty reduction.

This collaborative approach to education offers the chance to link research and learning into a coherent framework which focuses on problems of small farmers and generates more agricultural entrepreneurs.

January 05, 2010

NEW YEAR MESSAGE FROM IGNOU VC

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) shall pay more attention in addressing the issue of meaningful employment to its graduates this year, announced Vice Chancellor Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, in his New Year message, today.

Initiating its series of campus recruitments, IGNOU is making arrangements with multi-national corporations and IT companies for placement of its students in the areas of Information Technology and Communication services. Interested students and companies may get in touch with the IGNOU Placement Cell.

IGNOU has undertaken an ambitious and relevant study to understand the extent and level of EMPLOYABLE SKILLS that IGNOU students have been exposed to.

The honest and quick response of students is being solicited on this issue through a specifically designed questionnaire that will reflect the desired outcome.

Students can fill up an on-line questionnaire (www.ignou.ac.in and click on Campus Placement) and submit. They may also inform and encourage their classmates to do so. IGNOU will be happy to share the results and acknowledge their contribution in this exercise.

Addressing the academics and administrative officials of IGNOU, Prof. Pillai emphasized that IGNOU’s Distance education system has proved itself to be an effective education and skill development model for highly populated countries all over the world.

“We are also trying to enhance the quality of our services to the ever- increasing student population. Innovative and flexible use of different strategies of teaching and learning needs to be adapted in all our activities”, Prof. Pillai added.

January 03 , 2010

Last date of admission form for Management Programme – OPENMAT-XXVII,

Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology and Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics- OPENDEN-II

The Last date for submission of admission form for Management Programme – OPENMAT-XXVII, Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology and Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics- OPENDEN-II of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is 10th January 2010.

Student Handbook & Prospectus for Management Programme’ can be obtained from the registrar (SRD), IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-68 and from all the Regional Centres of IGNOU by sending a sum of Rs. 550/- through a Demand draft/IPO in favour of IGNOU payable at New Delhi/ city of concerned Regional Centre or by paying Rs500/- in cash at the respective sale counters. The application and Prospectus can also be downloaded from IGNOU website www.ignou.ac.in.

The entrance test “OPENMAT-XXVII” will be held on Sunday , 7th February’2010 all over the country.

There will also be an Entrance Test for Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology and Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics- OPENDEN-II.

Filled in form for Entrance Test “OPENMAT-XXVII”/ OPENDEN-II must reach, the Registrar (SED), IGNOU, Maidan Garhi New Delhi-68 by Registered Post/ Speed Post on or before 10th January,2010.

December 30, 2009

IGNOU and NHRC to sensitize police in Human Rights

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC ) are developing sensitization programmes in Human Rights for Police officers. These programmes are expected to benefit the police constables and sub inspectors in India.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)was signed between the IGNOU and NHRC today for the launch of these programmes at three different levels, that is, a Basic course for constables/sub-inspectors, Advanced course for middle level police officers and ‘Training of Trainers’ Programmes.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajsekharan Pillai said,”This will be the first effort of NHRC along with IGNOU to incorporate Human Rights culture among the Indian Police, to develop people –friendly practices.”

The First training programme under the partnership will be formally launched soon for Police Constables through the Haryana Police Academy at Madhuban.

”This training programme will be later followed in other states, in association with NHRC”, said Dr Srikrishna Deva Rao, Director, School of Law, IGNOU

The programmes will be offered in both Distance Education and online modes, followed by interactive workshops. To this effect, IGNOU has developed a “ Human Rights Training Portal” along with interactive self-instructional materials . E-Gyankosh and School of Law, IGNOU, will provide technical online support and develop interactive self-instructional materials as well as participate in the instruction and training of the participants.

NHRC will help in the development of the courses in the initial period in the form of resource support and funding the development of course materials, its printing, development of audio-visual materials and video lectures.

The Basic course will have modules on: introduction to Human Rights, Protection of Human Rights, Police and Human Rights, Custodial Justice, Best Human Rights practices in policing and Case Studies.

December 27, 2009

IGNOU City Centre in Connaught Place

A new IGNOU City Centre has been set up at the YMCA Tourist Hostel, Connaught Place, New Delhi to facilitate easy access to information about the University and its various academic programmes. The City Centre has been established to meet the information needs of aspiring learners and of the public besides helping learners –on –rolls in depositing and collecting documents like registration forms , exam applications and others.

The Centre is taking efforts to organize counseling sessions and to set up help desks at places frequented by the public. It shall provide support services to prospective learners/ guardians and general public including the press personnel. The Centre proposes to set up Tele - Conferencing facilities for the benefit of students.

December 25, 2009

Dr. Kasturirangan New ISRO Chair in IGNOU

Eminent Space Scientist and Member, Planning Commission, Dr K. Kasturirangan is the new ISRO Chair for Satellite Communication Education in Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

This Chair has been established in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to promote excellence in Research, Applications and Satellite Communications for Education. Visualising that satellite communications will play a critical role in the growth of Open and Distance Learning system in the country, the thrust of the Chair will be to define national level programmes that will be able to tap the potential of this technology and play a critical role in improving access as well as the quality of education at all levels.

Dr Kasturirangan steered India’s Space research programme as Chairman of the (ISRO) for nine years. Under his able stewardship,the programme witnessed several major milestones including the successful launch and operationisation of the Polar Satellite Launch vehicle and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle. These efforts have catapulted India as a pre-eminent space- faring nation among the six countries that have major space programmes.

Dr Kasturirangan is the recipient of a number of awards from the Government of India, including the Padma Vibhushan in 2000.He has also been the Member of Rajya Sabha. In 2002, France honoured him with its highest civilian award, ‘Officer of the Legion d’honneur’.

Satellite based communication plays an important role in distance education. It is particularly effective in reaching out to disperse populations spread over vast geographical dimensions. With convergence of information and communication technologies , it can be used in a variety of ways for online and offline provision of learning resources. Satellites can also be used for carrying a rich mix of multi media materials and provide access to large databases at very low cost.

December 24, 2009

IGNOU Announces new Programme in Financial Markets Practice

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Management Studies (SOMS) is offering a new Post Graduate Diploma programme in Financial Markets Practice, in collaboration with the Financial Technologies Knowledge Management Company(FTKMC),Mumbai, from January 2010 session .

The programme uses standard IGNOU multi-media design and technology- aided delivery systems.

The programe is open to Graduates of a recognized University. The duration of the programme is one year and the Programme fee is Rs. 10,000/-.

Student Handbook & Prospectus 2010 for this programme can be obtained from Registrar, Student Registration Division, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi, or from any IGNOU Regional Centres, whose addresses are given in the University website. The cost of the handbook is Rs. 500/-.

The application can also be downloaded from IGNOU website www.ignou.ac.in and submitted along with a DD/IPO for Rs. 500/- in addition to the Programme fee.

The Last Date to submit the filled-in application forms at the concerned Regional Centre is 31st December, 2009.

December 21, 2009

TRANSEXUALS TO HAVE A SEPARATE IDENTITY – CEC

While launching the course material for Indira Gandhi National Open Univerity's (IGNOU) BA (Philosophy) programme today, Shri Navin B. Chawla, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) announced separate identity for eunuchs or transsexuals on electoral rolls.

The CEC was speaking at the 2nd Annual Mother Teresa Memorial Lecture on “Electoral Democracy in India” organized by the IGNOU and Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) at IGNOU campus, Maidan Garhi.

The CEC said “In the last few months, I have addressed students at a number of campuses, when some of them suggested that the eunuchs or transsexuals should have an independent identity on the electoral rolls. Till now, they had to register either as male or female. I believed the request to be quite legitimate and it also related to the issue of individual freedom and a human rights issue”.

“We examined the request in depth and permitted the transgenders to register as “Other” or “O”, if they wanted so to a follow-up, the Commission has revised the format of the electoral rolls, modifying the column head to indicate their sex as ‘Other’ where they do not want to be described as male or female. Besides relevant forms used by the Commission wherein there is a provisions of indication of sex of the elector, IT based formats and website, have been suitably amended. Necessary instructions have been issued to all the concerned electoral registration authorities in the country to give effect to the above decision of the Commission” he added.

The speech focused primarily on the special efforts made by the Election Commission to make the electoral system more inclusive and socially sensitive.The Election commissioner elucidated on the steps taken so that Women, youth and socio-economically deprived sections could get their due place in the election process. He further added that The Commission is striving to realize this goal as their active participation is a necessity to strengthen democracy..

The Most Rev. Dr. Thomas Menamparampil, Chairman, CBCI, Commission for Education was the Guest of Honour, Dr. Thomas d’Aquino Seqeira, Deputy Secretary General, CBCI paid tribute to the Blessed Mother Teresa. The function was presided by Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai. Dr. D.K. Chaudhary PVC IGNOU and Prof. Gracious Thomas, Coordinator, CBCI Chair IGNOU also addressed the gathering.

The program also included a special screening of a Documentary on Mother Teresa and interaction of the CEC with students and audience.

December 22, 2009

IGNOU holds Lecture on Narrative of Marginalization

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) held the Silver Jubilee Lecture on ‘Aphasia, Amnesia and Inequalities: Narrative of Marginalization” by Dr. G.N. Devy, a prominent cultural activist and Human Rights campaigner, today.

Dr Devy’s Community Development work in western India is spread over 1,200 villages. He is a founder of several institutions like Bhasha Research and Publication Centre for Conservation of Adivasi languages, the Adivasi Academy devoted to education and Development, the Denotified and Nomadic Rights Action Group, a Human Rights Action Group , Human Rights campaign and Himlok, an institute for the study of Himalayan Communities and Culture.

The lecture offered a comment on the construction of ‘Knowledge’ during the colonial period leading to a loss of correspondence between ‘production of Knowledge’ and the cultural context within which the knowledge thus produced came to be situated. Dr. Devy narrated how several inappropriate descriptive categories came to be employed for social narratives adding to an already fractured society’s new processes of fragmentation in terms of ‘tribal’ and ‘notified’ communities.

The lecture also analyzed the complex spectrum of linguistic diversity in India. Dr Devy commented on how the lack of access to higher education results out of these three legacies. By implication, he suggested ways of overcoming the challenges before higher education in India at the present juncture of a profound epistemic shift.

The Silver Jubilee Lecture was presided by the IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Prof. VN Rajasekharan Pillai, and was attended by academics and students of the University, besides invited audience.

The IGNOU Silver Jubilee Lecture Series is coordinated by Pro Vice Chancellor Dr. Latha Pillai and Dr. Babu P. Remesh from the School of Interdisciplinary and Trans- Disciplinary Studies, IGNOU , is the Convenor. It is a monthly event which is being organized as a part of the celebrations during IGNOU’s Silver Jubilee Year. Renowned experts and practitioners from different fields and academic disciplines will be invited to deliver talks.

It is also planned that towards the end of this lecture series, a book containing the text of the various talks will be published.

December 20, 2009

IGNOU’s INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH

Over 28,000 students have been registered from 35 countries so far, to the various academic programmes of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the number is ever increasing, announced Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, VC today. Female students are approximately 38 % and the programmes preferred are BCA, MCA, MBA, B.Ed and Bachelor’s Degree Programmes.

Under the, pan African e-Network Project all 53 African countries Universities will be partnered with IGNOU. Afterwards IGNOU shall provide tele-education to SAARC countries for different professional programmes he added.

Says Mr. N.M. Hedayathullah – “I was the first student to enroll with IGNOU in Saudi Arabia for the MBA programme. It have been great Honor and privilege to be part of one of the largest University in the world.”

IGNOU has an assortment of partners. In Gulf countries the higher education is mostly in the private hands and therefore in UAE, Kuwait, Doha, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Singapore, Kenya, Mauritius, Nepal and Afganistan private institutions are our partners. In the Republic of Oman, an administrative body that manages all the Indian Schools with CBSE affiliation coordinates programme delivery.

Mr.Ghemeri Raju Deepak Kumar, Food & Beverage Manager, Hotel de l’Annapurna Kathmandu, Nepal, declares – “Choosing IGNOU for my Masters in Tourism Management (MTM) has been one of the best decisions in my life. The knowledge and the skills I have obtained so far has helped me in my job.”

In Maldives, the partnership is governed by a tripartite agreement , which includes Government of Republic of Maldives , IGNOU and Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India. A similar tripartite agreement involving Govt. of Seychelles, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and IGNOU takes care of the higher education requirement of students at Seychelles. In Mauritius, IGNOU has an agreement with Mauritius College of Air, an autonomous body under Govt. of Mauritius.

For Ms. Archana Kabra (MBA), Pulkit International Chief Administrator-

“The credit for my present success goes to ICA from where I obtained an IGNOU BA degree,Iam currently pursuing my MBA from ICA. I am sure new avenues will open up.

In Vietnam and Myanmar the tie-up is with Distance Learning institutions – Hanoi Open University in Vietnam and University of Distance Education, Myanmar respectively.

IGNOU has kept its option open with the choice of partners and the emphasis is on the experience and the quality of the education provider.

Ms. Sajida Fakhri, IGNOU student and Gold Medalist 2008 emphasizes - I joined the Masters in English course with IGNOU with some trepidation at my own ability to complete such a demanding course after such a long sabbatical. However the constant support of the IGNOU staff and the extraordinary study material helped immensely.

In Sri Lanka the partnership is with Ministry of Higher Education through Distance Education Moderanization Projects to offer distance education capacity building programme. Under MoU with International Institute of Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) and with Commonwealth of Learning (COL), IGNOU is offering programmes in Ethiopia, Gambia, Liberia, Ghana, Swaziland, Malawi, Nigeria, Jamaica, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Samoa, and Lesotho.

Mr. Mohammed Baleegh Uzzaman Siddiqui, States the B.Com courses at IGNOU has given me the balance between practical know-how and management experience what I was looking for. My degree is very broad, offering me wide range of options. On the other hand the course was quite structured, which helps me to keep focused in the commerce field.

With the help of IGNOU’s degree certificate I got job in Accounts & Finance Department of world class organization Islamic Development Bank and then I took admission in MBA at, Sikkim Manipal University and completed it. IGNOU acted as seeding for my masters.”

Other collaborative venture of IGNOU in the international education arena relate to provision of training in open learning system and distance education methodologies to personnel of the open universities in developing countries and licensing of IGNOU’s course materials to open universities outside India. Academics and administrators from open universities in South Asia and Africa visit IGNOU either to familiarize themselves with the functioning of IGNOU or to undergo specific training in the development of self-learning materials and various aspects of media production. The USP of IGNOU is its course materials, much sought after by open universities in Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius, Guyana, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka with the provision that the University can adopt the courses in its entirety to modify the courses to suit their needs.

The Coordinator of the Center for Open and Distance Education, a Partner Institution of IGNOU in Kenya, Mr. J.M.Mbuthia says “ Our students include professionals, managers and other staff from public and private sector organizations who simply don’t have the time to attend a regular class, we give them an opportunity to get quality education in a flexible way.

Dr. Silima Nanda, Director, International Division IGNOU. Says “IGNOU has also started its online programs in many subjects facilitating learners in any part of the globe to pursue their education. The open source ware of digitized study materials and videos of lectures and films through the You Tube are accessible to students. The research programs have also attracted a large group of learners and professionals globally.”

December 19, 2009

Sri Navin B. Chawla, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India shall deliver 2nd Annual Mother Teresa Memorial Lecture on “Electoral Democracy in India” and release a Book on Monday 21st December’09 at IGNOU campus.

It is being organized by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).

Most Rev. Dr. Thomas Menamparampil, Chairman, CBCI, Commission for Education shall be the Guest of Honour.

Dr. Thomas d’Aquino Seqeira, Deputy Secretary General, CBCI shall pay tribute to Blessed Mother Teresa.

Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, VC IGNOU shall preside over the function.

The program shall include screening of a documentary on Mother Teresa and interaction of CEC with students and audience.

December 17, 2009

Universities must again become hubs of research

Sam Pitroda, Chairman, National Knowledge Commission,
and Technology Advisor to the Prime Minister

NEW DELHI:

Sam Pitroda, Chairman, National Knowledge
Commission, and Technology Advisor to the Prime Minister, was associated with
the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in the 1980s. In an exclusive
interview with IGNOU's fortnightly newsletter `Open Letter', he spoke
about how the university can harness new education tools and adopt new models of
learning, while imparting education to millions.
Excerpts:

Q: As the head of the National Knowledge Commission
(NKC), you have advocated the use of information and communications

technology in education. As you know, the Indira Gandhi National Open
University has been using it for years to impart learning to millions. What is
your view on the university?
A: I was associated with the Indira Gandhi
National Open University in the 1980s. It has done some very good work and
offers some very good course modules. When it comes to use of information and
communications technology in education, I would not like to comment on
individual universities or institutions. But I would like to say that there are
several layers of using technology to impart education. This is an age of
information. This is an age of Wikipedia. This is an age of online libraries.
So, there has to be mobility. You cannot replicate a static classroom on-line.
There has to be interactivity. Satellite broadcasting has shown that there are
different levels and layers of disseminating information and education. As
information and communication technology changes, the available tools and
applications also change. So we need to harness these tools and look at new
models of learning as well. Organisations like IGNOU have tended to impart
education in the traditional format. I have already said the university is doing
good work with some good courses on offer. But there is a need for a lot more of
such good work. There should be some romance in education at all
levels.

Q: As the head of NKC, who is looking at new ways to
improve higher education, what would your suggestions be to improve IGNOU as an
educational institution?
A: We have not made any specific recommendation on
an individual university or institution. But we have made a
series of
recommendations. We have said India has around 350 universities and this number
is simply not enough with reference to our needs in higher education. We need to
create many more, appropriately scaled, universities. And 1,500 is an
approximate figure we have used to indicate the magnitude of the expansion
required in the higher education system. This is necessary to raise our
enrolment to levels comparable with most developing countries. We have also
recommended 50 national universities that can provide education of the highest
standard. Then we have suggested a portal on higher education and research to
increase interaction and accessibility. A knowledge network will connect all
universities and colleges for online open resources. We have also said
universities should revise or restructure the curricula at least once in three
years. The recommendations are many and in the public domain.

Q: Of late, IGNOU has been tying up with many
private institutions — some of them are of repute and others are small brands.
How do you view this development? What kind of courses would you like to see
IGNOU providing, which you think will be contemporary and job-oriented?
A: I
again cannot comment on individual university or institution. But I certainly
believe in autonomy — but autonomy with accountability. Therefore, I would say
it is for their respective decision-making bodies to ascertain what is best and
go ahead with that. Collaborations can help in amalgamating the best of two
institutions. But if it is not handled properly, it may also not yield the
desired results. So there cannot be a one-size-fits-all policy in this
regard.

Q: You have always emphasised on the importance of
research at the university level. How do you rate IGNOU’s performance in this
aspect?
A: I am not well versed about this aspect of IGNOU, so it would not
be proper for me to comment on a specific university. But we have maintained
that universities must become the hub of research once again to capture the
synergies that exist between teaching and research. This goes on to enrich the
two areas beautifully. Also, there has to be proper orientation of policy. There
has to be appropriate changes in resource allocation. The reward systems, and
most
importantly, mindsets of people, must
change.

December 14, 2009

IGNOU sculpts Dream Flights

Indira Gandhi National Open University has added yet another top-end course to its bouquet of pioneering frontline academic programmes. Tying up with CIAL (Cochin International Airport Ltd) Academy, IGNOU now offers MBA and other courses in aviation and airport infrastructure technology and management.

It was on September 25 that Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan dedicated the CIAL Academy to the nation. The first batch of classes has also just begun. Built at a cost of around Rs. 6 crore, CIAL Academy is situated close to the airport, opposite the state of the art Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility which is fast nearing completion.

PROGRAMMES

The programmes that are being offered include a two-year MBA programme, and a one-year Advanced Diploma Courses in: (a) Airport Operations Management, and, (b) Air Cargo Management; and six-month Certificate Courses in: (a) Airport Ramp Handling, (b) Rescue and Fire Fighting, and (c) Security and Intelligence.

Besides imparting knowledge in aviation management and aviation technology, CIAL Academy aims to become a centre of excellence and help promote professional and industry-oriented education by collaborating with specialised institutions.
Bubbling with enthusiasm was Jaya Paul, a graduate in Geography and a student of the first batch of the MBA programme, who aspires to be “the best manager in the aviation industry”. Says Paul: “I am delighted that I have made the right decision and joined the best place in the country to help transform
my dreams into reality.”

IGNOU USP

The academy is unique in more ways than one because the teaching faculty includes professionals purely from the aviation industry. Over 90 percent of the faculty come from within CIAL, experts who handle various departments of the airport.

T.S. Gopi, the Academy’s Director, says, “There may be other institutes offering such courses, but they can only give theoretical exposure. The students here will, from Day One, have on-the-job classroom training and get the feel of working out of an airport.”

CIAL Academy considered various options and felt that IGNOU was the best bet for more reasons than one. The most important — as it aimed to offer top-line management programmes, it felt IGNOU had the requisite expertise.

Dr. K.S. Divakaran Nair, regional director of IGNOU in Kerala, said the university’s role is crucial to the success of the courses.

“We monitor everything from the conduct of the entrance examination, to the interview and then the actual classes. Academic delivery is another area we monitor and we interact with students to find out about the quality of the lectures,” said Nair, adding that IGNOU sets the question papers and also evaluates them.

Gopi is also excited about opportunities on offer for students. “A placement cell is being set up and we have already made contact with potential employers, including airports and airlines, even though hiring would happen only two years from now,” he says.

All major Indian airports are evaluating capacity building. “Over 35 new airports in non-metro cities have been given the green signal. By the time they are complete, no less than 500 professionals would be required to operate them. And this is where our students would win hands down because they will already be exposed to all facets of an airport’s functions,” says Gopi.

A.C.K. Nair, Airport Director, CIAL, who has close to two decades experience of working in various airports in the country, says that trained and qualified manpower is a lacunae when it comes to airport operations and that the new academy will produce quality professionals. “The structure of the academy has been well
defined and we have a seven-member academic council consisting of IGNOU officials, CIAL officials and experts. Besides, we have a Board of Studies for each and every course that we offer. The examinations will be conducted by IGNOU,” says CIAL’s Nair.

“There is no doubt that the quality of teaching would be the best anyone can offer because we have selected the cream from the airport here. Only 10 per cent of the faculty would be drawn from outside the aviation industry and they would handle non-aviation subjects,” the CIAL official adds.

Hands-on, real-time
Another major advantage that CIAL Academy offers is that the entire project work would be carried out within the airport itself. This was one factor which attracted 34-year-old Joemon Varghese, a chemical engineer by profession, who quit his job in the U.S. to enrol in the first batch of the MBA programme at the academy.

“It was way back in 2000 when I reached the crowded Paris airport that I felt that the aviation industry certainly lacks top professionals.”

“I thought, why not look for a management career in the aviation industry. In the United States, I lived near Miami airport, something which fuelled my passion for airports. Acquiring a management degree in aviation thus became my dream,” says Varghese.

“While in the United States, I looked at various options for a professional career in aviation. Soon I heard that this academy, located close to my hometown, was being launched and I decided that my wait was over. I lost no time in taking the written and other tests,” Varghese adds.

The students sit in smart classrooms with facilities that match those of any international educational institute. In view of the academy’s potential, the Kerala Government has recently allotted an
additional five acres of land on the highway even as more infrastructure plans are being worked out for the academy.

“We know quite well that we cannot relax just yet though we do not have any competition at the moment. We know very well that other airports will build on our idea. But by then we would like to reach a position few can match in terms of the quality of the courses we would offer,” says Nair.

In 1999, CIAL created history when it became the first greenfield airport in India formed under the public-private partnership mode. It is India’s fourth-busiest airport and hosts 10 domestic and 16 international airlines. Last fiscal, a record 3.5 million passenger used the airport.

Fasten Your Seat Belt

Programmes
The courses include a two-year MBA programme; a one-year Advanced Diploma Course in:
(a) airport operations management and (b) air cargo management; and a six-month certificate course in (a) airport ramp handling, (b) rescue and fire fighting, (c) security and intelligence. The topics include airport operations management, airport support services and facilities, airport financial management, air traffic management and control systems and international airports, airlines and carrier operations management.

Specialty
The beauty of this programme is that from Semester III onwards those opting to specialise in
aviation business management will get to study in depth the entire range of an airport’s functions.

Seats
The number of seats for the MBA programme is 60. For the Diploma course it is limited to 30 seats each while for the Certificate course there are 30 seats each.

Fee
The four-semester MBA programme will cost Rs. 2.40 lakh while the two-semester Diploma course will cost Rs. 1 lakh and the six-month Certificate course Rs. 20,000.

December 13, 2009

Cost of Indian Higher Education is 1/10th the cost of Higher Education in Europe - Dr Shashi Tharoor

Hon’ble Minister of State for External Affairs, Dr. Shashi Tharoor said, “ Despite India being a Developing country, there is a great depth and diversity of education pool available here. The cost of higher education in India is 1/10 th the cost of Higher education in a European country.”

Dr Tharoor was speaking at an Education Summit organized jointly by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the Institute of Marketing and Management (IMM) on “Marketing of India’s Higher Education Worldwide: Revisited”.

The Ho’ble Minister further added that India also has institutes of repute like the IITs and the IIMs. And all that is needed is the proper marketing of India’s Higher education abroad. There is also a ‘Domestic’ demand for Higher education and the marketing of education abroad should not be at the cost of Indian students. Foreign education can take place if additional educational facilities are generated. This will also stem the exodus of Indian students going abroad for studies, he added. Dr Tharoor hoped that Public- Private Partnerships, like the one between IGNOU and IMM, would make Indian education more attractive worldwide.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Narendra Jadhav, Hon’ble Member (Education), Planning Commission, said, “Indian Universities should set up campuses abroad. This will give them a Global name and Indian teachers will get more exposure.”

Summing up the major themes that emerged during the day long Summit , Dr. Latha Pillai, Pro-Vice Chancellor, IGNOU said ,” There is a need to develop Special hubs of Higher education, increasing the number of scholarships for foreign students, providing better infrastructure and introducing credit system to attract more students from abroad.” She further added that IGNOU is already marketing Indian Higher education abroad through its Pan –African network.

Hon’ble Minister of State for External Affairs, Dr. Shashi Tharoor was the Chief Guest and Dr. Narendra Jadhav, Hon’ble Member (Education), Planning Commission was the Guest of Honour for the Summit , organized in the Capital. It was convened by Dr. Jagjit Singh, Executive President, IMM . The Co-Coordinators for the programme were Dr. Latha Pillai, Pro-Vice Chancellor, IGNOU and Dr. Pramod Kumar, Director, IMM.

The Summit focused on opportunities available in the fields of Engineering & Technology; IT & Management; Tourism & Hospitality and Agriculture to students from South Asia, Central Asia, Middle-East, Africa and Central America, at an affordable cost, right here in India.
It also highlighted IGNOU’s role in spreading education through distance mode not only in India but also to the world outside as per convenience of the students, irrespective of boundaries: social, political and economic.

The Subject experts in the Summit were drawn from both the Academia and the Industry. They spoke on the challenges faced by Higher education and deliberated on how Indian Higher education can be marketed to students abroad, so the number of foreign students coming to India for Higher studies can be increased. There are currently just 25,000 foreign students studying in India.

The specialized sectors of Higher education such as Engineering and Technology, IT & Management, Agriculture & Tourism & Hospitality were taken for panel discussion with special emphasis to market them in the Middle-East, Africa, South Asia and Central America. The Seminar was divided into four Technical Sessions, each focusing on one of the sectors in Higher Education.

December 12, 2009

IGNOU to Train Academics of Sri Lanka

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) School of Education (SOE) is holding a Training Workshop for a group of academics from the National Institute of Education(NIE), Sri Lanka. The workshop will focus on “Curriculum Design, Development and Evaluation and will be held from 14th- 23rd December, 2009.

The workshop aims to provide the participants with the theoretical underpinnings of curriculum and the major issues related to it. It will also give relevant hands-on experience, keeping in mind the demands of the 21st century.

In addition, participants will also learn the know-how of development and transaction of curriculum through the electronic media and online delivery techniques. Field visits to schools and national organizations like NCERT and NEUPA have been scheduled to provide an enriching experience.

December 11, 2009

IGNOU and WWF to Jointly offer PG Diploma in Environmental Law

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre for Environmental Law (CEL), World Wide Fund –India (WWF-India), to jointly run Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Law. The programme will be offered in the July 2010 session through the School of Law (SOL), IGNOU. On the anvil is a Masters programme in Environmental Law. The event was presided over by IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai and attended by the faculty and staff of IGNOU and WWF.

Speaking on the occasion, Professor Pillai said,” There is a wrong perspective that Development can only happen if we compromise with the environment. Real Development, on the other hand, will happen only if the environment is sustained. I hope that the new programme will present the right perspective of development to the students”.

He further added that IGNOU would be interested in introducing programmes in conservation of Species and Biodiversity. IGNOU could also offer the programme to other Universities, he said.

Hoping that the programme would spread knowledge and awareness about enviro-legal matters to a wider audience, Mr. Ravi Singh , Secretary General and CEO, WWF-India said, ”IGNOU’s expertise in long-distance education will be beneficial for many students and researchers in pursuing this highly specialized programme.” He added that the main issue facing environmentalists today was the dearth of knowledge among the common people about the repercussions of climate change and dwindling species.

CEL is already offering the Diploma programme in Environment Law in the online mode and has trained 500 students. The collaboration with IGNOU is expected to increase the reach of the programme to a wider section of society and is expected to develop Environment lawyers and supporting professionals in India.

December 10, 2009

First On –Campus, Term- end Exams for Face-to-Face Programmes at IGNOU

The first On- Campus, Term- end Examinations for Face-to-Face Programmes of Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) shall commence tomorrow and will conclude on 21st January, 2010.

The exams will be held for MA Social Work, MSc Chemistry, MA Journalism and Mass Communications, amongst others. The University has established Examination Centres at the New Classroom Block between Block 6 and 9 at IGNOU campus, Maidan Garhi.

On this occasion, IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai said,” IGNOU is now looking forward to working on the Right to Education, Skill Development, strengthening the large number of study centres and consolidating the existing programmes.” With the availability of Educational Satellite(Edusat), the University is poised to take giant steps towards Information and Communications technology, web and satellite based education across the globe and pursue flexible and blended learning further.

The VC emphasised that the IGNOU system can be an effective model for education communities all over the world. The Open and Distance Learning system has brought into its fold a large number of students, who have got transformed into a useful human resource for promoting integrated national development and global understanding.

Although the primary aim of Open and Distance education has been to improve the Gross Enrollment Ratio, this is not to take place in isolation. The quality of teaching-learning processes needs to be improved. Technology capacitated distance education has enabled the university to improve the quality of distance education classrooms as well as to enhance the reach of education. IGNOU is continuously modifying and adapting the nature and mode of education delivery.

The enthusiasm of the journey has equally been supported by the Government with adequate outlay for higher education to achieve the target of increasing the participation rate in higher education, he added.

December 09, 2009

Signs of the Future

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) Bachelor of Arts programme in Applied Sign Langauge, the first of its kind in the world, is preparing hearing-impaired students for higher education.

Twenty-year-old Sheena Kaul sits in the first row of her undergraduate class, a notebook in hand with ‘Jammu and Kashmir’ written over it. Animated and ever-smiling, Kaul, who hails from Kashmir, dreams of becoming a filmmaker after graduation. But with a difference: She wants to make films for people who have hearing and speech impairment — the community she
belongs to and feels for.

Wearing a printed, yellow kurta, she gestures with her hands and tries to say something, unsuccessfully though, as one of her instructors explains something to her in sign language. Some of her classmates try to speak without uttering a word — to tell the stories of how they have come from distant homes in search of education and success.

This is the scene in a classroom where 30 hearing-impaired students are pursuing a novel Bachelor of Arts programme in Applied Sign Language at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Launched in collaboration with University of Central Lancashire (UcLAN) of Britain, the programme, experts believe, is the first of its kind in the world.

Launching the programme, Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai said, “IGNOU is aiming to create through the programme sign language teachers and professionals to support the hearing-impaired. Teaching assistants and interpreter trainers in the field are in short supply in India.

“According to an estimate, only 5 percent of hearing-impaired children attend schools in India. Even where special schools for the hearing-impaired exist, they do not have adequate technical and teaching staff. We must create qualified professionals in the field.”

Kaul’s classmate is 22-year-old Renu Ahuja from Mumbai. She wants to teach in a school for the hearing-impaired after completing her higher education. She has one demand, though. “No one has ever interviewed us. You are the first one — do publish it in a newspaper and we will show it to our parents who were not very supportive and caring,” she said, as an interpreter translated that into English.

“My dream is to study more, graduate from here and then get a Master’s and a Ph.D. After that, I shall teach in a school for the hearing-impaired and help improve their condition,” she said in an emotional tone, while ‘speaking’ to one of her teachers. “It’s really great to ‘graduate’ in our own
language,” she said, almost jumping for joy.

“The programme will help the hearing-impaired better their life, both socially and financially,” said Prof. P.R. Ramanujam, Director of IGNOU’s Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE).

“The larger impact, however, will be their contribution to hundreds of schools for the hearing-impaired across the country ,which are suffering for want of qualified and trained teachers,” said Sibaji Panda, course leader and a lecturer at the UcLAN.

Panda, who himself is hearing-impaired, not only helped design the course after toiling for nearly two years but also arranged scholarships for 10 of the students from a Netherlands-based voluntary organisation.

“Why only India, all Third World countries will benefit from this course,” Panda said. Agreed Mohammad Kakuja, a student from Uganda. “The education scenario for hearing-impaired students in my country is not good and here in India it is great. I came to know about this course while surfing the internet and am indebted to IGNOU for it.”

“After completing four years of study here, I will go back to my country and start teaching in a school for the hearing-impaired. What I am learning must go back to people like me who have been suffering,” added the 26-year-old Kakuja.

Guan Xeunsong, a student from the Henan province of China, was enthusiastic about his arrival in India. “I want to learn about the culture of the hearing-impaired. About Indian sign language and many other aspects of such a unique course,” he said. He used to teach in a school for the hearing-impaired and plans to resume teaching after completing his education here in Delhi.

But for Babloo Kumar, a student from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, the aim is slightly different. “People and governments have neglected us. They humiliate us in a restaurant, at bus stations, in a ration shop or while travelling in train. After we become well-educated, we can confront them with confidence and ask the government to listen to our demands — for equal opportunity in both education and employment.”

“Please treat us as equals. We can do everything other people can do. This education will empower us to be where we belong,” said the spirited 18-year-old who also wants to become a teacher. Added Rabindra Nath Sarkar: “Both my parents are deaf. One of their siblings is deaf too. Only my sister is normal. By getting educated, I want to improve the condition of my community back home in Kolkata.”

Prof. Panda said the course would make every student a bilingual expert— both in sign language and in English. “It will teach them both the languages. Besides theory classes, they will do practicals, both at the university and at schools for the hearing-impaired. They will also learn computers, which will assist them in learning and teaching. The course is unique and I can say this with confidence,” he added.

Gitanjali Nair, who translates for both Prof. Panda and his students, is equally optimistic. “Forgetting every problem, these students want to study hard, make friends and know each other’s cultures. When they pass out from this university, they will be assets for their communities,” Nair said, smiling and encouraging students in a language understood by her pupils.

The signs are eloquent!

A box item to go with the story:

SIGN UP NOW!

Programme
The course has a duration of 1+3 years. The first year constitutes the foundation course, which culminates in the 4-year degree programme in Sign Language. The preparatory certificate course is a one-year full-time programme. Students pursue six modules, focusing on English literacy and various skills (IT, personal
development planning, etc). All modules are taught and assessed through sign
language and are specifically designed to meet the needs of hearing-impaired
learners.

Unique feature
Launched by STRIDE, the course has been developed in collaboration with the International Centre for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies (iSLanDS) at the University of Central Lancashire (UcLAN) in Britain. The modules have been developed by iSLanDS Centre to be taught in India, beginning 2009. UcLAN and IGNOU teachers will jointly conduct these courses.

Fee
The course fee is Rs. 10,000 per year.

Admission
Admission to this programme starts alongside the University’s general admissions session. There are 30 students this year for the first-year foundation course. Five of them are from China, Nepal, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi.

December 08, 2009

IGNOU-IMM Provide Fillip to Management Education

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is organizing Education Summit-II on “Marketing of India’s Higher Education Worldwide : Revisited” in collaboration with Institute of Marketing and Management (IMM). Hon’ble Minister of State for External Affairs,Dr. Shashi Tharoor will be the Chief Guest. The other special invitees at the Summit include Dr. Narendra Jadhav, Member (Education), Planning Commission and Prof. P. J. Kurien, Hon'ble Member of Parliament - Rajya Sabha & National President, IMM.

The Summit is being organised on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at IMM Convention Centre, Marketing Tower , Qutab Institutional Area.

The objective of the Summit is to focus on opportunities available in the sector of Higher Education in India especially in the fields of Engineering & Technology; IT & Management; Tourism & Hospitality and Agriculture and how these opportunities can be harnessed by students of South Asia, Central Asia, Middle-East, Africa and Central America to their benefit, at an affordable cost in comparison to the rest of the world. It would also highlight how IGNOU is spreading education through distance mode, not only in India, but also to the world outside as per convenience of the students, irrespective of boundaries, social, political and economic.

The Summit will be chaired by Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor,IGNOU. Dr. Jagjit Singh, Executive President, IMM will be the Convenor of the Summit. The Co-Coordinators for the programme are Dr. Latha Pillai, Pro-Vice Chancellor, IGNOU and Dr. Pramod Kumar, Director, IMM.

December 06, 2009

IGNOU provides free access to Knowledge with FlexiLearn

Prospective students can now log on to Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) FlexiLearn at www.ignouflexilearn.ac, to pick the subject of their choice and gain education absolutely free.

Flexilearn provides free and easy access to IGNOU’s courses. It integrates free learning resources with learning management systems for anyone who wants to learn, whatever their educational needs and experience. The platform provides an alternate way of awarding degrees and diplomas. The student can pay the fee later and get a Certificate.

FlexiLearn offers courses in a completely open and flexible environment with a number of unique features, like, a visitor to the FlexiLearn site has the option to register for any particular course or for a full length programme. A modular approach is followed wherein a learner can combine course credits to obtain a degree or diploma of their choice.

In addition, the platform provides a self-learning environment with a list of Academic Advisors/ Course guides to act as mentors. The Personal Learning Environment (PLE) will also have interactive tools like Discussion Boards, Blogs, Wikis, podcasting, RSS Feeds etc. Each course also has the option for both online as well as offline assessment, as per the choice of the learner, who can take exams ‘on demand’.

A complete tracking mechanism is integrated into the FlexiLearn platform through e-portfolios of individual learners. The E-portfolio will keep a formal record of all formal and informal studies carried out by the registered learner.

Certification of the courses will be based on stipulated time spent on a course and completion of all learning activities identified by the faculty.

The FlexiLearn platform provides an opportunity for prospective learners to sample a course before enrolling and also help them in choosing courses and programmes of study. Course-wise registration facilities will also offer topic specific continuing education programmes.

This platform also provides a flexible framework for Schools of Studies to identify and combine different courses already available, for offering tailor-made, need-based programmes. In the long run, this unique initiative will help in achieving IGNOU’s objective of democratization of education by taking it to the doorsteps of the learners and providing high-quality education to anyone who seeks it.

For further information on this press Release Please contact Dr. Uma Kanjilal, # 9810488895.

December 05, 2009

IGNOU Students can now avail on- Demand Exams

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has brought a more flexible and learner- friendly scheme of “On – Demand Examination”. In this scheme of examination, students who have completed the period of minimum study hours and submitted all their assignments can now choose the date of examination as per their convenience and preparation, and do not need to wait for six months for term end examinations. On student’s demand, IGNOU has also kept the fees for this examination at par with the term end examination.

The Scheme is a boon for those who have failed or could not appear in any paper for some reason. It will also benefit those students who could not find time to appear in all the courses of a programme in the term end examination, in one go.

Another important feature of the scheme is that the result of On-Demand Examination will be announced within two weeks of appearing in the examination. This will help the students whose maximum period of study is about to expire or those who need immediate results for the progress of their career. Students, however, have to ensure that they fulfill the eligibility criteria as set for the term end examination for that course or programme.for availing this facility.

On-Demand Examination scheme is expected to improve results and stop malpractices, as the entire process of registration, paper generation and result preparation is computer based and examination is carried under camera surveillance.

In addition to the six monthly term -end examination, IGNOU also provides the facility of On-Demand Examination in all courses of Bachelor Preparatory Programme (BPP), Certificate in Guidance (CIG), Certificate in Teaching of English (CTE) and Certificate in Organic Farming (COF). Many more programmes will be added under this scheme very soon.

The registration for the On-Demand Examination can be done only on-line through IGNOU website. If exam fees is paid by credit card, the Hall Ticket is generated instantaneously and the student can take its printout. Registration fee can also be paid through bank challan and bank draft in favour of IGNOU. In that case an acknowledgement receipt is generated immediately and the student is required to submit the original bank challan or bank draft along with a copy of the acknowledgement receipt at the concerned Regional Centre.

As soon as the bank challan or bank draft is received at the Regional Centre, the registration will be confirmed and its information will automatically be sent to the student’s account, which can be accessed by him/her using his/her registration number, allotted at the time of on-line registration.

To begin with, the On-Demand examination was being conducted only at the two Regional Centres of Delhi, but now it is being extended to the Jaipur Regional Centre as well. For appearing in the examination, the student will have to come to the exam centre on the date and time selected by him/her. He/She must have their Hall Ticket issued at the time of registration and original identity card issued by the university.

Students desirous of going for On-Demand Examination can visit the IGNOU website www.ignou.ac.in, contact any of the regional centres of IGNOU,
e-mail: walkinexam@ignou.ac.in or contact the Director, NCIDE & Coordinator, On-Demand Exam on phone: 011-29536413.

December 03, 2009

Management Summit to Attract Foreign Students

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is organizing an Education Summit in collaboration with the Institute of Marketing and Management (IMM), focusing on opportunities available to students from South Asia, Central Asia, Middle-East, Africa and Central America, at an affordable cost, right here in India.

India is expected to become the Education hub of the world with 20 new IITs and IIMs, and the setting up of numerous new private universities. This will attract students seeking quality Higher education to the country.

The topic of the Education Summit-II is “Marketing of India’s Higher Education Worldwide:Revisited”. Hon’ble Minister of State for External Affairs, Dr. Shashi Tharoor will be the Chief Guest.

The Summit is being held on Saturday, December 12, 2009 at IMM Convention Centre, Marketing Tower, Qutab Institutional Area.

The Summit will have technical sessions in Enginering and Technology, IT and Management, Tourism and Hospitality, Agriculture followed by a Special Session which will include addresses by Dr. Shashi Tharoor, IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajsekharan Pillai, Dr. Narendra Jadhav, Member (Education), Planning Commission and Prof. P. J. Kurien, Hon'ble Member of Parliament - Rajya Sabha & National President, IMM.

The objective of the Summit is to focus on opportunities available in the sector of Higher Education in India especially in the fields of Engineering & Technology; IT & Management; Tourism & Hospitality and Agriculture and how these opportunities can be harnessed by students. It would also highlight how IGNOU is spreading education through distance mode, not only in India, but also to the world outside as per convenience of the students, irrespective of boundaries, social, political and economic.

December 02, 2009

IGNOU Institutes Raman Chair for Science Education

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai today announced the establishment of Raman Chair in the University. Prof. P T Manoharan, has joined as Raman Chair Professor in IGNOU. Prof. Manoharan is currently Ramanna Fellow, Department of Science & Technology and an Honorary Professor (JNCASR, Bangalore) at IIT, Madras. He is the Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Third World Academy of Sciences and the World Innovation Foundation.

Raman Chair, an integral part of IGNOU’s School of Science (SOS), is created to promote interdisciplinary research and teaching involving all four branches of basic sciences, particularly in the context of the eroding attraction and declining participation of youngsters towards science, scientific research and development.

Professor Pillai said,” It is gratifying to witness a growing realization that basic scientific research is the real key to technological development without which a nation like India cannot evolve into a global economic power and sustain the tempo of its increasing need and thirst for new and sophisticated technology.” He further added that the health of a nation is dependant on the health of its scientific base which will in turn propel new technology. A manifold increase in the country’s investment in science education and scientific research can be seen as evidence for a keenness to develop our scientific base taking cognizance of the globally competitive scenario.

The initiatives and objectives of this Chair will include coordinating the promotion of integrated science teaching and multidisciplinary research activities, conceiving, initiating, coordinating and propelling academic and research activities and planning and execution of integrated Master’s level degrees. Its aim also encompasses inviting expert teachers and scholars from all branches, including mathematics, to come together in an attempt to create a convergence between the modalities of IGNOU and science institutions of repute, such as Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research.

The Chair will also work towards creating projects to develop curricula and syllabi for new courses at all levels—degrees, diploma and certificates. It will innovate new methods of science- education through the use of modern communication technology and promotional activities in the field of educational and training materials such as writing of books and multimedia materials for different modes of learning needs. Developing courses in multidisciplinary subjects such as nanoscience, green chemistry, business mathematics will also be an objective of the Chair. It will identify bright young talent in the final years of schools from all sections of society and regions to participate in the development of science through seminars, with the help of scholars from all over India. Last and not the least, Raman Chair will work with national policy making bodies to map out strategies for science promotion at all levels.

November 29, 2009

IGNOU receives IDRC research support grant to host the Global Secretariat for telecentre.org Academy

International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Crown Corporation and an agency of the Government of Canada has entered into a collaboration agreement with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to host the Global Secretariat of the telecentre.org Academy. With a research support grant of INR 34 lakhs, this activity will help incubate the Secretariat develop its work plan, build and formalise the partnerships with key stakeholders and develop its long term business plan and strategic directions. The Global Secretariat will be advised by a Global Governance Committee which will be drawn in from the expertise and leadership from the telecentre movement.

The world of telecentres encompasses over one million grassroots level knowledge workers, over 10,000 policy makers, over a 1000 network leaders, promoters and advocates and over a billion community members. Telecentres are public places where people use computers, Internet, and other electronic technologies to bring knowledge economy at their doorstep. These stakeholders come together in a network to focus on inclusive development reaching the poor and marginalised using new information and communication technologies (ICTs).

The telecentre.org Academy is a global network of people and organisations committed to making a difference in development by empowering people in communities around the world. The telecentre.org Academy will be establishing appropriate skills development programmes to promote livelihoods and knowledge based practices among the grassroots communities.

Lead Organisations steering the Academy at a global level include the International Development Research Centre, Canada; Indira Gandhi National Open University, India, telecentre.org Foundation, Manila, Philippines; and a consortium of national telecentre.org academies from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, East Africa, Egypt, India, Malaysia, Peru, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Philippines.

University Partners who have formed a consortium to deliver bench-marked international standard courses include University of Brasilia, Brazil; University of La Frontera, Chile; IGNOU, India; Open University, Malaysia; University of Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique; Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Peru; University of Philippines Open University, Philippines; University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; Sukothai Thammarthirat Open University, Thailand; and Kyambogo University, Uganda.

The strength of these partnerships is evident by the Curriculum Commons website that acts as a repository of the knowledge and training content to encourage use, re-use, translation, and adaptation around the world. Readers are encouraged to visit the website www.telecentreacademy.org and www.ignou.ac.in to learn more about various innovative initiatives.

The Honorable President of India, Smt Pratibha Devisingh Patil, in her address to the joint session of Parliament on June 4, 2009 called for “the extension of the National Scheme of Common Service Centres or e-kiosks to be suitably repositioned to be a network of Panchayat level Bharat Nirman Common Service Centres to provide government services to citizens in rural areas”. With infrastructure like broadband connectivity in every panchayat coming up in the next three years, the focus on building capacities of staff in the 240,000 Panchayats will be a key input that IGNOU will extend through customized training programmes for e-kiosk operators and managers under this international collaboration.

November 27, 2009

IGNOU Inaugurates First Sanskrit Seminar

Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU) School of Interdisciplinary and Trans-Disciplinary Studies (SOITS) inaugurated a One-day Sanskrit Seminar in the Convention Centre, IGNOU. The occasion also marked the formal launch of Online certificate programme in Sanskrit, jointly offered by IGNOU and Chinmaya International Foundation(CIF).

The Chief Guests for the function were Shri KN Shrivastava, Director General, Archaeological Survey of India and Acharya Bhadant Gayan Jagat. Several distinguished Sanskrit scholars delivered lectures during the Seminar. Dr Vandita Arora from IP College, Delhi University (DU) delivered a lecture on Veda and Vedanta and Dr Didhiti Chakraborti, Head, Deptt of Sanskrit, elaborated on ‘The concept of education as reflected in ancient Sanskrit texts’.

Delivering the inaugural speech, IGNOU Vice Chancellor, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai said,” IGNOU has plans to launch several advanced programmes in Indology and Vedanta as well as Certificate programmes in other Indian languages.” He further said that there is a need to revamp Sanskrit education and Sanskrit scholars should learn English to make the spread of the language easier.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Shrivastava said that ‘Sanskriti’ and Sanskrit are inter-linked. Without an understanding of Sanskrit, it is not possible to understand Indian culture and Ayurveda. He also stressed on the relevance of preserving our heritage and culture for economic development of the country.

November 22, 2009

IGNOU Ranking

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), has been ranked 15th in India in terms of its visibility on the Internet and scholarly papers on the World Wide Web, announced IGNOU VC V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai.

Globally, the ranking for the premier distance education institution has jumped 477 places over the past year, says Cybermetric Lab, the largest public research institution in Spain that conducts the ranking among 15,000 universities

The ranking is based on the number of pages recovered from four search engines — Google, Yahoo, Live Search and Exalead — the number of unique external links received, and the number of papers and citations for each academic domain.

“As a university in the open and distance learning space, it is important for an institution like IGNOU to harness technology and use the latest communication tools to reach out to students,” said IGNOU Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai. “At IGNOU, our web presence is very important to us,” Prof. Pillai added.

IGNOU offers state-of-the-art education not only through face-to-face classes, but also via webcasts, telecasts and video conferencing.

The objective of the ranking is to promote Web publication, with the primary purpose of supporting open access initiatives of these institutions as also to encourage electronic availability of scientific and other academic material, the web performance of in institution is below expected positions according to their web policy, promoting substantial increases in the volume and quality of thir electronic publications.

November 21, 2009

IGNOU - UNESCO Join Hands for Quality Media Education

UNESCO will certify IGNOU media programmes

New Delhi, 21, November:

UNESCO will jointly certify the MA Programme in Journalism being taught on campus by IGNOU’s School of Journalism and New Media Studies(SOJNMS) as an ideal model for media education in the developing world. The UNESCO curriculum has been adapted for this programme. Mr. Armoogum Parsuramen, Director UNESCO South Asia stated this while inaugurating the two day national symposium was organised by the School of Journalism and New Media Studies IGNOU in collaboration with UNESCO on the ‘Challenges and Opportunities of Media Education in India.’

Prof. Shambhu Nath Singh, Director SOJNMS promised the extension of virtual classroom facility to the South Asian nations. He was responding to the popular demand for support raised by the participants from the SAARC countries. The design, development, implementation and upgradation of the UNESCO Curricula will be aided by SOJNMS, IGNOU. The school will act as a helping and monitoring agency to develop standard media education in the sub continental region.

Ms. Iskra Panevska, Communication and Information Advisor for South Asia, UNESCO reinforced the need for future collaborations with IGNOU and expressed the willingness to train media educators in the South Asian region. Prof. Singh said that SOJNMS in collaborations with UNESCO will institutionalize media congress every year to share the experiences of media educators and practitioners across the globe.

Mr. Parsuramen said that with this symposium UNESCO-IGNOU can further create a platform to address various issues in the filed of education such as training of teachers, journalists and developing innovative academic programmes in the area of preserving cultural heritage.

The function was presided by Prof. V.N.Rajasekharan Pillai, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, IGNOU. He announced the inception of a new ISRO Chair for developing next generation communication technology for mass education through EDUSAT. This initiative would help millions of people of the country to have access to education. Dr. R Sreedhar Director CEMCA, one of the partner institutes for the symposium says he looks forward to further fruitful collaborations with SOJNMS.

In the two day debate over the standards and varied dimensions of media education, the stalwarts from industry and academia raised the case for a strong collaboration between the two spheres to train the emerging workforce.

B.P. Sanjay, former Director, IIMC and Vice Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Central University, Professor JS Yadav, former Director IIMC and Chariman IMS, Suneet Tandon, Director IIMC Delhi, Asghar Wazahat, Director MCRC, Ifthikhar Ahmed, former Director MCRC and Dean(Television) FTII, Pune, Prof. Rohan Samarjiva, renowned media academician, Prof. Biswajit Das, Director Cater for Cultural Media and Governance JMI, Prof. Pushpesh Pant, JNU, Prof. Anand Kumar, renowned sociologist from JNU, Prof Ashok Ogra, Director APJ institute of Mass Communication, Prof. Vinod Pavarala, Dean S.N. School Univ. of Hyderabad, Dr. Vibodh Pathasarathy, Dr. Meera Desai, SNDT University, Mumbai and the likes advocated the need for strong technical and educational hold in academics.

Siddharth Varadhrajan, Chief of National Bureau, The Hindu, Pankaj Pachauri, Managing Editor, NDTV and Vice President of Broadcast Editors Association of India and Shravan Garg, Dainik Bhaskar stressed upon the need to improve the research activities in media education.

Mr. Pankaj Pachaury invited media institutes to initiate collective research efforts to support media industry in the country. Mr. Sunit Tandon in response to this call said that the premiere media institutions with the proper support of the industry can initiate such research activities to upgrade the quality of contemporary media practices and content.

Media educators from across the globe came forth to deliberate upon the strong emerging needs to train professionals for the market. Dr. Arvind Singhal from the Center of Communication Studies University of Texas talked of using media for community development.

Resource persons from Finland, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and various Indian states shared their experiences in running media programmes in their respective countries.

November 17, 2009

IGNOU Kickstarts ‘Student Satisfaction Survey’

In line with international trends and specifically UK Universities, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai today launched ‘Student Satisfaction Survey’ for the benefit of its students. This is one of the initiatives started by the University in its Silver Jubilee year.

The survey tries to quantify students’ basic understanding of concepts related to their chosen subjects and whether the learning materials and academic counseling provided by IGNOU is able to clarify these concepts. It aims to assess student satisfaction levels specifically in the following areas: quality of printed learning materials and supplementary study materials like video/audio, the organization of academic sessions, performance of academic councilors and IGNOU staff in the Regional Centres and whether learning materials are received by students in time.

Students can send in their feedback by clicking on the link ‘Student Satisfaction Survey’ displayed prominently on the Home page of the IGNOU website: www.ignou.ac.in. IGNOU plans to take corrective actions, based on the feedback received.

November 15, 2009

LAUNCH OF IGNOU "OPENLETTER"

On the occasion of its Silver Jubilee Year, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) shall launch "OPENLETTER" a fortnightly newsletter of an International Standard in collaboration with ‘Indo Asian News Service’ (IANS).

In its forthcoming inaugural issue, Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, VC IGNOU said that IGNOU has emerged as the largest university in the world. IGNOU has been chosen to host the Pan-Commonwealth Forum 6 (PCF6) in the Silver Jubilee Year, with the theme 'Access and Success in Learning: Global Development Perspectives'.

VC announced that On 19 November 2009, IGNOU enters its 25th year, a significant milestone in its illustrious growth. Today, IGNOU has a formidable profile. With 2.5 million students, 21 Schools of Study and a global presence in 34 countries and 52 Partner Institutions therein, IGNOU today has gone beyond this and is fast emerging as a “University of Choice”. It makes knowledge and skills “available to anybody, anytime, anywhere”.

The Commonwealth of Learning, Canada, has recognized IGNOU as a "Centre of Excellence in Distance Education Training".

Established in 1985, the university’s founding principles were clear: Social inclusion and democratisation of education. It was to provide a powerful alternative to the conventional system of education for the underprivileged.

November 03, 2009

IGNOU explores US Community College model to ensure massive outreach of education

New Delhi:What’s common among Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, Ellin Collens, Space Shuttle Commander, Oscar Hijuelos, Pulitzer Award winner, a Chemistry Nobel Prize winner, George Lucas, Tom Hanks and Clist Estwood? All of them started their education at Community Colleges in the United States of America.

IGNOU and American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) today on the campus started dialogues through presentations to evaluate strengths of American model of Community Colleges (CCs) under the aegis of US-India Educational Foundation (USIEF).

A two-member team of AACC, headed by Dr Judith Irwin, Director of International Programmes and Services of the AACC, discussed a slew of novel ideas in the areas of social development through Community Colleges.

In his welcome address to Dr Judith Irwin, Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai said, “The purpose of this interactive is to evaluate and discuss the US model of Community Colleges and integrate it in the IGNOU system of Community Colleges. We at IGNOU and probably other Indian universities too would like to request the AACC to have a formal tie-up for Community Colleges in India . We will commission a focused team of the Community Colleges of IGNOU to discuss more with the USIEF to adopt the US system for the IGNOU Community Colleges.”

Of 700 applicants from all parts of the country IGNOU followed a rigorous process of assessment and standardization and registered 50 Community Colleges in July 2009. Prof Pillai said over 12,000 students from these colleges will take their first semester examinations in December 2009. Prof Pillai also assured audience and the distinguished guests to create a “single window” system for clearance of important decisions and recommendations with regard to CCs.

Dr Judith Irwin gave her presentation on behalf of the AACC, whereas four out of the 50 Community Colleges registered with IGNOU submitted their presentations.

Enthusiasm was very high even as Dr Judith through a presentation explained in details the American model of Community Colleges. In the US the Community Colleges constitute the largest segment of higher education. These include nearly 1,200 institutions with an enrollment of 11 million students, 6 million of whom are seeking a degree or certificate. According to an estimate, in the US, the Community Colleges ensure 83% of the tertiary education, of which higher education is only a part. Set against the achievements in the USA in India the figure is merely 11%.

The meeting of the Indian experts with the American educationists will more and more address the following in the coming days :

· Community College System in the USA

· Curricula through skill-based programmes

· Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in

the pedagogy in Community Colleges

· Credit articulation and transfer agreement

· Evolving paradigms

· Standard Guidelines to individual colleges

Dr Irwin said in the Us there are 1195 CCs. Of these 177 belong to Independent Bodies, 31 to Tribal organiosations and 987 to the government. The CCs there have four categories, for Freshers, Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. After the Associate Degrees, the freshers and sophomores go vertically mobile to do their graduations and post-graduations and also post-doctoral research. A host of modern vocation-oriented educational programmes and training are offered to students laced with placements, as all these are promoted and supported by the industries. “The US CCs are accessible, affordable, adaptable, and accountable to all students, both internal as well as international”, said Dr Irwin. “Our alumni from the CCs include Pulitzer Prize winners, Nobel Prize winners, Chief Executives, Scientists, Governors, US Cogressional Rerpresentatives, Producers and actors of films, documentary films and athletes”, she added.

Over 46% of all post-secondary level education is in the CCs in the US, who study in a system of 6.5 million credit programmes, 5.5 million non-credit programmes and the average age of the enrolled students in the US CCs is 28, Dr Irwin said. The most community colleges provide open access, enabling both the US and international students to benefit from the high-quality and low-cost courses they offer.

These students are enormously diverse-in terms of goals, needs, backgrounds, and life circumstances. At the same time, these colleges increasingly recognize that their students will live in a multicultural, interdependent society. For this reason, community colleges are expanding their programs and services to embrace the "world community".

Asked about the acceptability in other countries of the US model of Community Colleges, Dr Irwin said, “As the primary advocacy, leadership, and service organization for community colleges in the United States, AAAC actively supports an international role for community colleges in all dimensions of worldwide education and training. It is evident that the community colleges are strategically positioned and experienced to educate and train individuals to function successfully in a multicultural and advanced technological environment that crosses all boundaries of education, communication, language and business. Community colleges are providing assistance to other countries such as China, Thailand and Vietnam where there is a heightened interest to adopt the US community college model.”

There are feelers, that the best of the American model of the Community Colleges would be considered for integration in the IGNOU Community College system. Stressing the point IGNOU Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Latha Pillai said, “We are open to ideas. We shall explore for the best practices in the US system and examine whether these are compatible with Indian conditions. Definitely the best examples will be given proper attention.”

Referring to IGNOU’s recent tie-up with Indian Army for setting up Community Colleges to empower the in-service and retired personnel, Vice Chancellor expressed hope that in about five years time the IGNOU enrolment figure will reach 5 million, in which the enrolment in Community Colleges will be a major factor. The Army colleges apart, scopes are wide open to turn many of the Common Service Centres in village panchayats into vibrant Community Colleges by that time. The American model is gaining on popularity increasingly world over, said Professor Pillai.

October 31, 2009

IGNOU’s novel school launches a mix of studies

New Delhi:IGNOU’s School of Inter-disciplinary and Trans-disciplinary Studies (SOITS) has recently launched a unique MA programme in Anthropology, titled as MA in Social Anthropology.

The programme ensures understanding of Indian communities, especially those ingrown in various tribes and folk cultures. It focuses on history, archaeology, gender and evolves around the fabrics of their lifestyles, beliefs, religions, class-consciousness and heterogeneous behavioural patterns. The study warps and wefts through a wide strata of various communities. A host of niche subjects -- like history, economics, sociology, cultures, Gandhi philosophy and studies thereof, which include contemporary Indian politics, polemics, conflict resolution moves and studies -- have been merged into a curricular discipline. This has made the programme unique by itself. It is a gamut of something about everything, enough for a bureaucrat or a policy-maker, such as bureaucrats, teachers, academic researchers, NGOs working among the societies of various castes and tribes groups, to know from what s/he has to work with.

For students of competitive examinations, the programme offers special insight in understanding the real India, diverse in cultures, colours and streaks and a constant wonder for the uninitiated.

The programme has been offered in face-to-face mode also. Eminent scholars in the subject -- like Prof R S Mann, former director of Anthropological Survey of India -- are taking regular classes during the sessions.

The SOITS is a unique school ever created in an Indian university. Nowhere a school or a completely academic department exists in the country to teach what the bureaucrats would want most to learn from a courseware.

The SOITS also offers an integral M.Sc. to Ph.D. programme in Physics and Astro-Physics launched in collaboration with Indian Institute of Astro Physics (IIAP), Bangalore.

A host of other external collaborators -- such as Puducherry-based SACAR for studies in Aurobindo Philosophy, Education, Psychology and Physiology, Delhi-based Chinmayanada Mission for Sanskrit studies, Vadodara-based Bhasha for Tribal Studies and Kolkata-based Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group for Migration Studies -- have joined IGNOU under the SOITS umbrella.

All these programmes have become very popular, says SOITS director Dr Nandini Sinha Kapur. The school is readying for launching a slew of seminar series to mark the Silver Jubilee Year beginning November 19, IGNOU’s Foundation Day, Dr Kapur added.

October 26, 2009

IGNOU,Ericsson ink pact for 3G Mobile in Services of education

New Delhi:IGNOU on Thursday (29 October, 2009) will sign an MoU with Ericsson India Pvt. Limited (EIL), an Indian chapter of Swedish multinational firm Ericsson, to start application of the third generation (3G) mobile in education delivery.

Students of IGNOU will soon get 3G Mobile services at a very nominal fees, say hardly Rs 20 or Rs 25 more than what they are paying for the normal admissions.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof KR Srivathsan, who introduced the concept, and Ericsson chief Gowton Achaibar addressed the mediapersons to explain how the 3G technology would reach out the heterogenous echelons of IGNOU students communities.

“It is not the distance education alone, who are going to be the beneficiaries, from the 3G Mobile, even in the conventional university system the students using the technology will be at an edge over others”, said Prof Srivathsan, a distinguished technocrat and former director in IIT Kanpur and IIITM, Thiruvananthapuram.

India has recently launched the Third Generation (3G) Mobile Services. This MoU is aimed at effective use of facilities supported by 3G Mobile services in Open and Distance education. It is a state-of-the-art technology put to connect the remote area learners.

The common SMS today is already used in the course management through SMS alert services. With the 3G, students will be supported with access to parts of the course web pages, downloading files like Assignments and Video clips.

Prof Srivathsan said, “The 3G technology creates wider scopes for a learner. It is a small-screen mega performer which has a browser to scan, stream, build capacities of the users by getting materials at shortest possible application methods. The 3G technology helps a learner stream through video, audio and selective Internet browsing. Downloaded files may be played through laptop or PC. New notebooks with built-in 3G chip sets advanced e-learning services. This will allow consulting with academic counsellors, course coordinators, peer-to-peer discussions etc.”

A small laptop in the notebook built in 3G chip can be a wonderful utility tool for the distance education teachers, particularly for areas where infrastructure and electricity are not available enough. “The 3G technology ensures both web-mentoring and web-proctoring,” explains Prof Srivathsan, “web-mentoring means studying through the 3G chip, consulting with counsellors and/or engaging in peer-to-peer discussions.

The web-proctoring is more expert-driven. It means only the experts and researchers in the M-Learning technologies can participate to effect better application modules. Web-proctoring will ensure not only the two-way audio and video interactives, but also makes possible a delivery of classroom discussion or a seminar in a three-party module.”

He also gave an example, a sign language student, who is hearing and speech impaired, can take his/her classes through the mobile screen of the 3G model of mobile telephony. His/ her learning is more by watching the signs created by the interpreter. In this case a lecture is given at a place, the interpreter interpreting it through sign language is stationed at a different location and a speech and hearing impaired learner watching the signs of the interpreter from a different place. All activities at three points take place simultaneously. The 3G technology can make this possible.

Explaining the students profile at IGNOU, Vice Chancellor Prof Pillai stressed the heterogeneity of the communities of IGNOU, “We are not like the conventional universities. Our students come from all types of communities of the country. They are disadvantaged BPL families, lower income groups, middle class societies and also are highly articulate professionals like engineers, doctors, scientists, professors etc. We cater to all kinds of life of the country. Our 2.5 millions student bases are powerful receptors of the G3 technology.”

Answering a question about the burden of cost on the students communities, Prof Pillai said, “In most cases our students earn and learn. They can provide for the 3G Mobile services for education. Even then, from this collaboration we will charge them hardly Rs 20 or Rs 25 for the 3G Mobile services. But the real cost is likely to be from the TRAI and other services providers.”

Ericsson president Mr Gowton Achaibar in his address stressed, “We Ericsson and IGNOU would create an eco-system for the G3 Mobile technology applied in education. India has about 20% of the world’s population. If we create an ecosystem, delivery of education through the 3G Mobile will become a great success story.”

Replying to the costing aspect for thetechnology being used by students, Mr Acahibar’s deputy P Balaji, chief of marketing said, “The cost will be only for the installation on natural estimate.”

The technology has a niche area of functioning for the university. The cost will increasingly come down with enrolment figures going up. IGNOU is at an advantage in this situation. At present IGNOU disseminates education to over eight (8) million homes through the Edusat-mediate beams of DTH services. Increasingly IGNOU is putting into applications the latest Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to reach out to the unreached in the remote areas of rural India.

Scientists at IGNOU constantly evaluate the latest ICTs to press into services of education. This MoU by IGNOU is yet another niche area specialisation for developing domain knowledge and application scopes.

Swedish firm Ericsson is a trusted name at Communication Networks, Global Telecom Services and Multimedia Solutions. A mega firm with turnover worth SEK 209 billion, Ericsson R&D makes communication around the globe easier by helping operators to bring new services to their customers.

Ericsson ensures faster reliable and cost-effective network infrastrcuture.

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October18, 2009

IGNOU steps up RIVET-EZ move to educate & train BPL youths in six states

New Delhi : Orissa’s Phulbani (Kondhmal district) is now in for a good news. Indira Gandhi National Open University will start here from the January session offering vocational and training programmes to educate and train youths from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in tribal areas of this and five other states. A sprawling house in the district has been hired. Five vocational training and educational programmes have been identified to begin with.

The programmes are :

Certificate in Computer Basics
Certificate in Advanced Computing
Certificate in Job Training
Certificate in Interview Etiquette, and
Diploma in Advanced Computing.

IGNOU Certificate programmes are for six months each. The Diploma programme will be for a year. After clearing the certificates or the diploma, the successfully passed youths will be given employment. The students will be given opportunities to enroll into the programmes of IGNOU on a flexi-mode of learning system.

The programmes will be conducted through a Common Service Centre (CSC) in each village panchayat office at six states – Orissa, MP, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

All programmes will be carried out online from application to certification stages. For this, the process is on for hiring services of trained teachers from nearby areas to teach and guide the IGNOU students in every village panchayat.

The pass-out students will be employed in various industries in East Zone of India. Initially, the programmes will be run from the hired house until the construction of the Regional Institute for Vocational Education and Training for East Zone (RIVET-EZ), gets completed and handed over to IGNOU. The RIVET-EZ will primarily cover six states – Orrissa, MP, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

According Prof. Pandav Nayak, former Vice Chancellor of Utkal University and the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the RIVET-EZ project, which was cleared by IGNOU Board of Management on November 19, 2008 at its 97th meeting chaired by Vice Chancellor Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai, construction of the building will soon start. The Council for Integrated Tribal Research and Programmes (CITRAP), which is a non-governmental body taking care of the regional tribal area development, has already allotted a 16.8-acre plot to IGNOU. The CITRAP has joined IGNOU in the project on a public-private partnership understanding. Educational Consultants India Limited (Ed.CIL) has been appointed as the Project Management Agency (PMA) and assigned the responsibility to submit the master plan for the RIVET-EZ in a time-bound task.

For the CSCs, recently IGNOU has signed a memorandum of agreement with SREI Sahaj e-Governance (SAHAJ), a Koltata-based educational and vocational training NGO. The SAHAJ has already obtained a mandate from the Union Department of Information Technology (DOIT) to set up over 27,000 CSCs at six states in the village panchayat level within the current fiscal. The six states are Orissa, four districts of north-west Tamil Nadu, Bihar, eastern UP districts (from Lucknow to Varanasi), Jharkhand and West Bengal. All these areas do not strictly fall under IGNOU’s RIVET-EZ jurisdiction. Nevertheless, according to vice president of SAHAJ, Dr Ranabir Das, who is also the nodal officer incharge of the IGNOU educational and training programmes, the SAHAJ will use all these CSCs for running the RIVET-EZ programmes in its target areas.

Confirms Dr Nayak, “Since the SAHAJ has already started working in villages which do not fall in the RIVET-EZ jurisdiction strictly, and because of the fact that the IGNOU’s RIVET programme will gradually be expanded to cover entire under-developed areas of the country, we have agreed to take our programmes also to the existing SAHAJ target areas.”

For the youths of the BPL families in these under developed tribal areas, the CSCs at village panchayats will ensure an environment both for learning and employment. The concept of CSCs is particularly helpful to women and children of the villages and the BPL families who for various socio-economic reasons cannot travel a distance to attend a school or training institute for education and vocational apprenticeships. The CSCs will provide these opportunities.

The RIVET-EZ is a part of development programmes of IGNOU through education and training to the grassroots. For the eight states in the North East, a RIVET-type IGNOU Institute of Vocational Education and Training (IIVET) has already been made functional from a hired house at Shillong, Meghalaya. Four more RIVETS will be set up soon for other zones of the country.

October12, 2009

IGNOU inks MoU with AEPC for a slew of skill-based Programmes

New Delhi:IGNOU today signed an MoU with Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) for a slew of apparel industry specific educational programmes. AEPC comprises Apparel Management and Apparel Training and Design Centres (ATDC) which are non-profit industry-managed organisations promoting manufacture and exports of garments, education and training in the domain.

The MoU was signed by IGNOU’s Registrar (Administration) Dr U S Tolia and AEPC Director General for education and training Dr Darlie Koshy in presence of Vice Chancellor of IGNOU Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai and AEPC Chairman Mr Rakesh Vaid.

The MoU aims to institute educational programmes in the skill-based domain of apparel, garments, fashion designing which will ensure employment to a large cross-section of the society. The two arms of the AEPC, Institute of Apparel Management (IAM) and ATDC, have already developed a few programmes for niche areas of functioning in the apparel industry. This MoU will ensure IGNOU certification and scaling up for further domain knowledge. It is hoped that the MoU will boost professionals in ‘fibre to fashion’ chain of textile, apparel and retail industries.

The MoU also ensures exploration of possibilities to set up Activity Centre to create avenues for gainful employment in textile, apparel, lifestyle and retail sectors.

A joint coordination committee consisting of five experts will be set up comprising IGNOU and AEPC experts and academics related to the textiles industry. The tie-up will especially address following areas of interests:
• Exclusive use of networks of IGNOU, IAM and ATDC to get skill-development of the unreached segment of the society,
• Innovative tech-voc academic programmes by share of expertise,
• Joint market surveys to develop need-based approach to help the professionals in their career pathways,
• Creation of ICT-driven delivery culture
• Development of new concepts and white papers for bridging education and industry requirements.

There are 52 ATDC facilities in the country which will be used to provide vocational education certifiable by IGNOU according to the IGNOU standards. Confirming this Dr Koshy said, “The programmes will be technical and vocational. These will be for certificates, diplomas and degrees. All programmes will be in modular manner between IGNOU, and AEPC’s arms ATDC and IAM”. Various models to make use of the ATDC network will be explored following the MoU, such as distance education model, community colleges, open education norms etc., said Koshy.

Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai lauded the AEPC for the move to educate and empower lakhs of youth who want to join the apparel industry for gainful careers. This initiative will underline IGNOU’s commitment to the goals of the National Skills Mission, which target creation of livelihood opportunities for needy individuals.

October 8, 2009

IGNOU signs MoU with Papua New Guinea Varsity of technology

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University today signed a generic memorandum of understanding with an island nation on the Pacific, Papua New Guinea’s University of Technology (PNG UNITECH), for a slew of educational and training programmes. This makes IGNOU’s presence in 34 countries with 53 partner institutions (PIs) abroad.

The PNG UNITECH has a dedicated Open and Distance Learning department, which will further its ODL outreach in collaboration with IGNOU.

The IGNOU programme at the PNG UNITECH are likely to start from July 2010 session. According to Dr Silima Nanda, director incharge of IGNOU’s International Division, the identification of programmes for education and training, meetings of the joint coordination committee etc will take about 3-4 months. As the country has its session beginning from February and ours in January and July, some standard understanding will have to be developed before the IGNOU programmes take off in the island nation.

The MoU envisages development of cultural, educational and scientific ties of cooperation between the two universities. The MoU will also encourage academic exchange and collaboration to advance education and training in the two institutions.

Besides usual common goals of higher education and training, the tie-up aims to offer degree, diploma and certificate programmes at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and stress Research and Development, application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) education and interactive multimedia and interactive education deliveries. The stress will eventually expand the educational horizon of the island nation especially in areas of ODL, multimedia and ICTs.

To these goals, a network for cooperation in the field of higher education will be developed in distance education. There will be faculty exchange and sharing of experiences time to time, said the MoU. According to the representatives of the PNG UNITECH, the expertise from IGNOU and joint R&D projects, applications of ICTs and multimedia in distance education will develop the island university greatly to start newage
academic programmes.

Said Professor Mohammad Abdus Sattar, the UNITECH’s pro-Vice Chancellor for academic affairs, the island has 400,000 sqaure kilometres in area, six universities and about 30 colleges of all types. The UNITECH intends to bring in modern curricula for students. It has 13 degree programmes which includes four (4) in engineering, three (3) in natural sciences such as agriculture, food technology etc., environment research and management studies among others. The UNITECH has three (3) affiliated colleges which are technology oriented for forestry, timber, nursing etc and seven research centre.

October 8, 2009

Admissions at IGNOU for January session are on in full swing

New Delhi:Admissions for January session 2010 to all 310 programmes at Indira Gandhi National Open University advertised in national dailies on May 24, 2009, are on in full swing. Thirteen (13) more programmes have been added to the list for the January session, taking the number of programmes on offer to 323. The campus and its Regional Centres are humming with hectic activities.

Mr K Laxman, who looks after the students registration, said today that applications for admissions without any Late Fee will be received till 31 October 2009 for the January 2010 session at all regional centres as well as at the concerned schools. Those who would miss the last date may still apply for enrolment till November 30, 2009 with a late fee of Rs 200 only.

Prospectuses will be available at all the Regional Centres as well as the counter at the Headquarters.

Many programmes in areas like Tourism, Hospitality, Optometry, Education Technology, Fashion, Merchandising, Textiles, Folklore, Aqua-culture, BPO, Actuarial Science, Animation, Aviation etc. are among the newly developed programmes on offer. These are for studies at various levels, from Diploma to PhD.

Details of programmes, eligibility of admissions, names and contact numbers of programme coordinators with their email address are all printed in the prospectuses. Students will also be able to access all these information in the website, www.ignou.ac.in.

IGNOU has ensured that a student can walk-in for admission anytime of the year. They can also register online for any programme according to their suitability of time and eligibility.

Admissions to Community Colleges registered with IGNOU are also open. Over 100 Community Colleges have registered with IGNOU since the launch of the scheme on July 4 last. Out of these, admissions are being granted to 58 Community Colleges at present. In all 9,111 students have taken admission in these 58 colleges, said Laxman. Students intake and launch of programmes at other Community Colleges are in progress, he added.

September 29, 2009

IGNOU extends date for submission of exam forms

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University has extended the last date for submission of Examination Fees for the December examinations without any late fee upto October 1, 2009

The decision has been taken because the banks will not function on September 30, said a recent notice.

September 29, 2009

IGNOU starts a new programme in anthropology studies

New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Open University recently started a novel programme on Social Anthropology studies.

IGNOU has launched Social Anthropology Programme under the innovative school of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary studies (SOITS). The programme which is unique in the country draws from disciplines like Sociology, History, Folk studies, Environmental Studies etc.The programme of Social Anthropology has also been enriched by Prof. R. S. Mann, former Director of Anthropological Survey of India (ASI) and eminent scholar who delivered a lecture on ‘Tribes of India’ which is one of the compulsory course in MA Social Anthropology. Prof. R. S Mann has accepted the position of professor of eminence in SOITS,IGNOU.

Prof. Mann opened his lecture by defining Social Anthropology as a study of entire range of culture and societies in the world. He corroborated the diversity ,multiplicity, geographical distribution of tribes in India by census data. and Human Development Index. He further outlined that deforestation and intensive exploitation of resources are biggest concerns which endanger tribes in India which sometimes lead to negative consequences as insurgency.
Addressing the audience Prof.Vijay Kapur, Advisor to the Vice Chancellor (Special Project) quoted and shared his anecdotal experience during his stay in Jharkhand as a IAS officer.
He pointed that cutting of forest provide firewood and means of living for the tribal people and forest cutting is not a law and order problem but it is a major developmental issue.

In the concluding remarks, Dr.Nandini Sinha Kapur said that such lecture are welcome feature and these lectures should continue in future.

September 29, 2009

IGNOU workshop evolves guidelines for setting up Community Colleges

New Delhi:IGNOU recently released a slew of recommendations to institutions registered with it for starting Community Colleges. The recommendations were made by experts at the conclusion of the three-day workshop to “Develop guidelines for preparation of Text-Books and Training Manuals” for these colleges.

Explaining what these colleges have to do to meet the requirements of IGNOU’s Degrees and Certificates, the convener of the workshop and director of Student Services Division of the university Dr C K Ghosh said :

•IGNOU will train the trainers and resource persons, who develop coursewares at Community Colleges at every region, to ensure compliance of standard requirements.
•All such colleges will have to be provided with the university’s standard norms for fixing the required credits for achieving certificates and the norms must have to be strictly translated into the Text-Books and Training Manuals.
•Each Community College will have to be provided with standard sample Text-Books and Training Manuals to develop their own coursewares.

At brainstorming sessions for three days, issues were discussed threadbare to evolve guidelines. Experts agreed that the level of programmes will be uniform at all Community Colleges. In cases of full-time face-to-face classes, a credit will consist of 15 hours of attendance and in part-time situations it will comprise 30 hours. A student will be required to study for creditisation as under :

•A Certificate 16 to 20 credits
•A Diploma 32 to 36 credits
•An ADP 64 to 68 credits (ADB stands for Associate Degree Programme)
•An UG programme 96 to108 credits (an UG stands for Under Graduate programme. The undergraduate programmes are 3 years for a BA, BSc and 4 years for technical subjects.

There will also be non-credit programmes for certification and these will be customized according to need of the state and the concerned trade or individuals.

Students for the ADPs will have to be 12+2 pass-outs for direct entry. Those who could not complete or do their Plus 2 stage would have to come through Bachelors’ Preparatory Programme (BPP) of IGNOU or through a Bridge Course of an Open University.

For students aspiring to get admitted to a Certificate programme at a Community College, the entry level is only class 8th pass-out, or through a bridge course of an Open University. Any formal qualification will not be required for taking admission for a certificate in certain special vocations where the applicant is already employed in a domain knowledge scenario.

Experts were unanimous over the issue to development or academic programmes on vocations. It has been decided that the stress will be on Local-needs, addressing issues in the Socio-Economic Milieu and there would be regular need analyses to identify broad areas of state-needs.

That eventually led to addressing programme contents. For Foundation Courses, said the draft recommendation under consideration of the competent authority at IGNOU, the coursewares would comprise training on skills development in soft areas, language,
functional English speaking, computer literacy, communicative arts and entrepreneurial; for Application-oriented Sunjects there would be internships, hands-on training and extension apprenticeships.

The three-day workshop was chaired by IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. Were among the eminent experts in Community College concept, who attended the workshop.

Fr. Xavier Alphonse S.J., ICRDCE, Chennai, Mr. Vikas Singh, Director, Crux Management Services P Ltd., Hyderabad, Ms. Nalini Gangadharan, Chairperson, CAP Foundation, Hyderabad, Dr. Stephen J. Muthu SJ, Director, Madurai Community College, Dr. Ms. Ordetta Mendoza, Stella Maris College, Chennai, Prof. Anil Bhattacharya, Former Professor of Physics, APC College, New Barrackpore, Kolkata, Prof. JK Sharma, OSD, Institute of Management Sciences, University of Lucknow, rof. S. Neelamegham, Director General NIILM, New Delhi, Prof. Sunita Sengupta, FMS, University of Delhi, New Delhi, Dr. Pankaj Sinha, Associate Professor, FMS, University of Delhi, Prof. HM Mishra, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administrations, Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, Prof. Bharati Sharma, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi and Prof Vijay Kapur, ex-IAS and former Seattle University (USA) professor at Community Colleges.

IGNOU Pro-Vice Chamcellor and incharge of the Community College Scheme Dr. Latha Pillai, and eminent scientist in Information and communication technologies (ICTs) Prof KR Srivathsan were also present at the workshop.

September 23, 2009

Meira Kumar launches IGNOU Foundation Course in Bhojpuri

New Delhi:Remember that lilting Hindi film song – Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Charhaibo, Saiyan se Karde Milanwa -- of 1960s? Indians born after 1960s may not be able to relate to its significance today. But such is its charm and cadence, the song is nostalgically appreciated even today as a symbol of ethos of Indian society.

While launching an IGNOU programme of Foundation Course in Bhojpuri today here at India Habitat Centre, Lok Sabha Speaker Smt Meira Kumar referred to the cadence of the language and its rich vocabulary which has developed its literature.

Addressing a gathering of IGNOU academics and mediapersons, Smt Kumar said in Bhojprui that over 20 crore people speak in this language. They are spread in all parts of the country and also live in substantial number in Trinidad & Tobago, Fiji, Mauritius and Surinam. As a language Bhojpuri is so rich that it has an epic, powerful vocabulary and people willing to interact in natural inter-personal communication. “Barhka kaam bhaila,” she said in Bhojpuri to the applause of the gathering, adding that the word ‘piyari’ is just not Hindi or Bhojpuri, but is a symbol of Indian essence and divinity.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai announced to set up a Centre for Bhojpuri language and Literature and Culture in the campus.

According to the scheme of the foundation course at IGNOU, students of BA, BCom, BSW will have options to offer Bhojprui as a course. This is the beginning only. Soon the language will be on offer for Certificate, Diploma, Degree, MA and PhD programmes gradually, announced Prof Shatrughna Kumar. Introduction of Bhojpuri in the programme is Prof Kumar’s sole initiative. “There will be many more opportunities to learn the language in depth and also culture its literature”, he said.

If a language has developing and constantly evolving literature, running over centuries and spoken with verve by over 2 million people, why cannot it be included in the 8th schedule? The question was dogging, though unexpressed in the launch ceremony.

Asked in the sidelines separately, about the prospect of the language’s being included in the 8th Schedule of Constitution, Prof Kumar said that would depend on the empowered committee to make the necessary recommendations. “In the last meeting they did not consider it, even though huge humanity speak in the language.”

The 8th Schedule today lists only 22 languages of India. Bhojpuri, with over 20 crore speakers, definitely has a chance to be included in near future. Besides India, it is spoken far and wide in Mauritius, Fiji, Trinidad & Tobago and Surinam.

Sahitya Academy sources also do not seem to have any clue. The premier institution of the country’s literature and language does not carry out promotional programme on Bhojprui. Asked, a senior official said in confidence, “We do not promote it, though probably the language deserves a better treatment in terms of inclusion in the 8th Schedule.

However, the empowered committee in the government system is yet to begin thinking over the issue. A sustained social inclusion of language is possible only if there is a proper effort to recognise it as a national language. Until that happens, Amitabh Bachchans and Mithun Chakrabortys may continue to stir Bhojpuri nostalgia, without cementing much gain for the literarti in Bhojpuri.

September 16, 2009

IGNOU starts bus services for on-campus full-time students

New Delhi:IGNOU has started bus services for its students enrolled in on-campus, full-time programmes. It will be IGNOU special bus service. Two buses will start from Khokha Market of Saket to the IGNOU campus and return from IGNOU Academic Complex to Khokha market in Saket, everyday.

The schedule is as under :

From Saket (Khoka Market)

Bus No. I : 0830 0915 1000 1045 1130
Bus No. II : 0845 0930 1015 1100 1145

From IGNOU

Bus No. I : 1400 1445 1530 1615 1700
Bus No. II : 1430 1515 1600 1645 1800

Bus Stops inside IGNOU campus
1.         Parking Place near main gate.
2.         T-Junction near Block-7.
3.         EMPC Junction.
4.         Convention Centre.
5.         Academic Complex (Guest House side).

Flagging off the bus services for the students today in the afternoon at the IGNOU Academic Complex, Vice Chancellor Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai hoped such development s will boost community life in the campus. Students will not be required to pay any fees for availing themselves of the bus service.

Vice Chancellor Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai has fixed a deadline of October 31st for completion of the construction of the classrooms.

September 15, 2009

IGNOU targets real-life vocations in maiden workshop for Com.Colleges

New Delhi:With a view to empowering the grassroots disadvantaged youths of India, IGNOU today started a three-day National Workshop on Development of Text-Books and Training manuals for Community Colleges.

Three programmes are being considered through these colleges -- Certificate, Diploma and Associate Degree Programme (ADP). It is a story of development of grassroots India more than just education delivery.

Twentyfive eminent experts from across the country have arrived to discuss, deliberate upon and standardise text-books and training manuals on a broad range vocational areas where untrained humanity is engaged in the country to earn livelihood.

These experts are from various Community Colleges who are running 237 programmes, many of which are general subjects taught in all universities. The workshop aims to standardise the niche vocational subjects only. There are suggestions for multiple modes of teaching and training for many areas, which also need to be standardised

On completion of the ADP, a student will get direct admission to the third year of degree course for his/her degree, if s/he so desires. Otherwise, in each course they will be empowered with certification.

IGNOU, by way of being the premier Open and Distance Learning institution in the country, has phenomenal expertise in the area of development of self-learning materials (SLMs).

The programmes are targeted to be the need-based of the community and State-needs education. The Community colleges will be given total autonomy as regards to the conduction of the programmes. Every community college will be required to create three regulatory bodies, which are : a Community College Board, an Academic Committee, and an Examination Committee.

So far 62 Community Colleges have been registered with IGNOU. There are a few Community Colleges already being run by NGOs and central universities like, Pondicherry University, Puducherry and MS University, Thirunelvelli. These apart, the Indian Army has about 47 regimental centres, which will be turned into community colleges

Welcoming the experts, Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, said that IGNOU will not present any text-book to the community Colleges, but will offer the framework of curricula so that the colleges are able to create their required text-books and training manuals. There will be total freedom and autonomy for the colleges, IGNOU will only offer guidelines. “Institutionalising of Community Colleges is what we are doing,” he said.

IGNOU Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Latha Pillai, the person behind the IGNOU Community College Scheme, said, “It is the first cycle of the scheme at present. We have received offers to register with IGNOU from various institutions interested to set up Community Colleges at their institutions. Some focus on teaching, some on training. But we would like to see blending of the both for proper Community Colleges. We have selected 72 institutions from the Indian Centre for Research and Development of Community Education (ICRDCE). We will take ideas from experiences from institutions like Pondicherry University and M S University to develop a standard framework of models. We would love to see it in Reverse Transfer model. That means, enabling students, who have enrolled in conventional universities, to join the Community Colleges too for honing their innate skills and enhancing employability.”

Dr C K Ghosh, Director of IGNOU’s Student Services Unit, who convened the workshop, suggested that the workshop should be able to complete the process of developing the Text-Books and Training Manuals on face-to-face model, and not exactly on the IGNOU ODL style of SLMs, because students in these colleges will pursue studies in face-to-face and part-time classrooms. However, the texture of the course materials must be in SLMs pattern so that they feel interested and drawn towards the programmes, he advised.

Prof. Vijay Kapur, retired IAS who joined as adviser (project) of IGNOU and who taught for four years in a Seattle (USA)-based Community College, said that studying in Community Colleges in the USA for one’s degree is not considered inferior to the conventional system. Rather they are considered superior in many ways to the graduates from the conventional education system because they also have hands-down real-life experience. Professionals, school drop-outs and those interested to update professional skills for getting jobs, are people who study in the USA systems, he added.

Dr Xavier Alphonse, Director of ICRDCE, who is working for development of the Community Colleges movement in the country for over two decades, suggested three methods to approach the framework for text-books and training manuals:

· Foundation Course and a certificate to the learners

· Designing the courseware to ensure vertical mobility of learners, and

· Ensuring Placement with Internship at an industrial setup.

September 14, 2009

IGNOU workshop for text-books, manuals of Community Colleges begins today

New Delhi:IGNOU has convened a three-day national workshop on “Development of Text-Books and Training Manuals for Community Colleges” from Tuesday (15-17 September) in the campus.

The expected outcome of the workshop is a set of guidelines preparation of the Text-Books and Training Manuals for the Community Colleges. Many eminent personalities, who have significantly contributed to development of such Text-Books and Training Manuals have confirmed their participation in the workshop.

The Community College is a novel idea to help the millions of school and college drop-outs and those disadvantaged humanity who cannot pursue higher education because they find entry to a conventional system difficult. These Colleges offer tailor-made educational programmes which address local needs. They use approaches most acceptable to workers in a given society.

The national workshop will look into areas of typical programmes at community colleges. These are :

Computer Literacy
Soft Skills
Tailoring
Fashion Design
Mobile Phone Servicing
Motor Cycle Repair
Desktop Publishing
Embroidery
Pre-primary Teachers’ Training
Clinical Laboratory Assistance

Says Dr CK Ghosh, who is coordinating for the workshop, “An important task on hand in respect of the scheme is to develop Text-books and Training Manuals for the Community Colleges. IGNOU, by way of being the number one Open and Distance Learning institution in the country, has phenomenal expertise in the area of development of Self Learning Materials (SLMs). As the programmes of the Community Colleges will be handled primarily in face-to-face mode, the colleges will be in need of Text-Books and Training Manuals. Keeping the autonomy factor in mind the role of preparation of the said documents will be entrusted with the colleges with suitable guidance from IGNOU.”

The conventional system of education always has been based on the concept of “Learning to know”. That did not help enough to democratize education in the country. This alternative mode of education through Community Colleges is an initiative to that direction.

Says Dr Latha Pillai, Pro-Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, “It is an alternative education system which aims to empower individuals through appropriate skills development leading to gainful employment. Certification by IGNOU will ensure them gainful employment. It encourages students who may want to attend a three-year degree but are not academically, personally or economically ready to begin study in the formal system. In a community college a student can choose to work towards a associate degree (two-year) in hundreds of academic and technical fields, which will enable them to get admitted to a regular college or university for completion of a degree. The students have choices to pursue continuing education in whatever format suitable to them, face-to-face, online, full-time, and part-time.”

According to the IGNOU Community College scheme, these colleges will have functional autonomy. They will set up three regulatory bodies :

Community College Board
Academic Committee
Examination Committee

Each body will have a representative from IGNOU. Every Community College will offer Associate Degree Programme of 64 credits of duration of two years. The Degree will be awarded by IGNOU.

For further details, kindly contact : 98102 52954

September 9, 2009

IGNOU,U21 Global hold Webinir to interact with enrolled students

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University today (Sept 7, 2009) conducted a Webinar on its Executive MBA in IT Management (EMBA) programme. The EMBA is programme developed according to requirement of the IT industry and was recently launched by IGNOU in collaboration with Singapore-based Universitas 21 Global (U21 Global).

The Webinar – a seminar held on the web -- was aimed to address its students across the world.

Fortyeight of the enrolled 63 students of this collaborative programme joined the Webinar. They interacted with their teachers and spoke from India, Australia, Singapore and UAE. The entire programme has an innovative approach to issues and topics of Executive MBA in IT Management. Students posed their queries and discussed solutions.

The Webinar was conducted from IGNOU by Prof K Subramanian, Director of IGNOU’s Advanced Centre for Informative and Innovative Learning (ACIIL) and Prof Vijay Kapoor, Executive Director, and from Singapore by Prof Win Lam, Dean of U21 Global.

Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai presided over the Webinar.

The Webinar was recorded and uploaded to the niche web portal for EMBA in IT Management Programme, www.u21global.edu.sg, for students who could not join today, due to time variance. However, the recorded Webinar can be opened anytime from anywhere in the world by the enrolled students at their pace and convenience.

It is for the first time any university in the country conducted a Webinar to discuss educational points with its enrolled students across the globe at an interactive session.

Sources at U21 Global say that the portal www.u21global.edu.sg has an icon ‘e-class’ in which all students will put questions or queries about anything with regard to the course materials, and the programme, which will be answered through the same within 24 hours by the concerned teacher of the EMBA programme. All 63 students had logged on today at various times to the e-class to attend their courses of studies. They will soon be invited for orientation programme called Students Orientation Programme (SOP) and will be asked to pose questions and queries in the ‘e-class’ which will be answered with 24 hours by the concerned teachers as teacher-to-students interactives and also by peer-to-peer solutions.

According to the terms of the collaboration between IGNOU and U21 Global, students will follow the course materials of the U21 Global for Executive Certificate in Global IT Management (CGITM). Thereafter, they will have to pursue IGNOU course materials for six months and will qualify for the Executive MBA in IT Management (EMBA) degree. Thus they will get two certificates. The entire programme will require one and a half years of studies online.

September 8, 2009

20 classrooms Block at IGNOU campus by Oct-end

New Delhi:IGNOU is humming with students activities. Over 350 students have started attending their regular face-to-face classes. To meet the space requirement, today (September 8, 2009), on the National Literacy Day, the university laid its foundation stone opposite its Convention Centre, for a 20-classrooms block for running on-campus face-to-face programmes.

Vice Chancellor Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai has fixed a deadline of October 31st for completion of the construction of the classrooms.

September 8, 2009

IGNOU Launches novel course on Folkfore and culture studies

New Delhi:IGNOU’s School of Interdisciplinary and Trans-disciplinary Studies (SOITS) has developed an innovative Diploma Programme in folklore and culture studies, ‘PG Diploma in Folklore and Culture Studies (PGDFCS)’. From this July 2009 session, the students get an entirely novel offer in culture studies, comprehensive and detailed, with anecdotal references to the ethos of cultures of the world.

It is a synergistic approach to studies of cultures and folklores of the world, with special reference to Indian tradition. Indian culture is entwined in the ethos of life of the subcontinent on which the SOITS has laid thrusts for studies.

The Programme fee will be Rs 2,000 only. The students will be given one to four years to complete the Diploma in flexi-mode, through the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) method.

The programme, PGDFCS, is the brainchild of SOH’s Associate Professor of English, Dr Nandini Sahu, who belongs to the IGNOU School of Humanities. She said, “The PGDFCS students will have to study for 30 credits under five courses. These are : Folklore and Culture : Conceptual perspectives;Tradition, Identity and Cultural Production; Cultural and Societal Transformation; Tribes of India: Identity, Culture and Lore; and a Project Report of 20,000 words, based on the studies of the aforesaid four courses. This Project Report would constitute the special aspect in this Programme. The students will have to go through various theoretical approaches and undertake case studies to understand and approach folklore and cultures” Dr.Sahu informed. She further added that the course can be very interesting with units based on folk art, oral and written traditions of folk literature, folk music, dance, drama, puppetry, archiving, tribes and the forest and the preservation of culture.

Four blocks are the basic structure of each course on which the Project Report has to be written. The School expects that the students will study meticulously enough to be able to develop a standpoint about how best the cultures and folklores can be preserved. Stress has been given to enable the learners to look at future of the civilisation while keeping the past untainted from aberrations or wrong interpretations. To ensure that, classical approaches to the preservation of cultures , the issue of language death and language preservation also have been discussed in the programme.

September 4, 2009

Gyan Deep:Indian Army - IGNOU Community Colleges Launched

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University and Indian Army today (Friday, September 4, 2009) signed a memorandum of understanding to start 47 Community Colleges at Regimental Army Training Academies, which will be turned into Army-IGNOU Community Colleges. These colleges collectively will be called Gyan Deep.

The MoU seeks to confer educational certification to soldiers within the parameters of IGNOU system, and recognise the “in-service” training done on them at the Army Training Academies. A 5-member Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) representing IGNOU and the Indian Army will be formed to put in place a structured curriculum for a two-year (four semesters, 64 credits) Associate Degree and well-defined guidelines for in-service soldiers to enhance their education and upgrade skills.

According to the MoU, a soldier, desirous to enhance his educational standard, will take admission to a Community College in his/her training academy and will pursue the course according to his/her time and pace. After completion of two years, s/he will be entitled for an Associate Degree. If the candidate wants to pursue higher education after acquiring the Associate Degree, s/he will be given lateral entry to the third year of the three-year degree course for graduation. The certificate will empower him/her to get the second career after retirement from the Army. The MoU envisages that the training modules for the Associate Degree will be designed and provided by the Army and IGNOU academics, while the certification will be done by IGNOU. The joint development of the training modules for the degrees will be need-based and decided by the JCC, which will also look into award of credits and other related matters. A liaison cell for the Army will be set up in IGNOU headquarters.

It is a historic MoU in the lexicon of the Indian Army, as, for the first time a strong step has been taken forward to utilise services of about 50,000 retiring soldiers – an of asset of disciplined, hardy, trained, intelligent human capital -- in the nation building processes. The degrees acquired through the community colleges will empower them enough to secure a second career in a vocation after retirement from the Army.

A community college is an alternative system of education which aims to empower individuals through appropriate skills development. The educational programmes in these colleges are tailor-made to the local needs and state-based requirements. The programmes are generally most acceptable to workers in the target communities. The training and education in the community colleges help students get gainful employment, as the programmes are designed in collaboration with the local industry and communities.

Community colleges are wonderful opportunities for the school drop-outs, lateral entrants into the higher education and those in the workforce who find entry in the formal system rigid. The soldiers, who gather immense real-life experience, hardiest training, have wonderful tenacity to work hard and for long hours find getting a job very difficult, as they don’t generally have formal academic qualification. The certificates gathered through the community colleges will provide them with necessary qualification and also will ensure them the need-based skills development training required by the target communities.

Otherwise also the community colleges will provide the fastest option for a student who wants a career-oriented qualification and may not even require a three-year degree. For example, a student, who takes one-year diploma of 32 credits as a pharmacy technician or a 16-credit certificate in insurance in a community college, may take education in other course from IGNOU’s 310 programmes. His or her credits will be transferred to speed up his or her education and degree on successful clearance.

For Army personnel, the community colleges are of high relevance. The Indian Army recruits personnel with three broad categories of educational qualification – below 12 class, class 12 pass and graduates and above. After serving the Army and retiring at a young age of 45, they often come across stiff competition in the job-market for a second career due to lack of a formal degree. Education and training of the highest order are required for the army personnel.

Touching upon this, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Deepak Kapoor said, “We are moving toward a future of real-life high technology, knowledge and competitive opportunities. We need a very high order of trained, professional and competent Army. The soldiers are expected to be the role models to the society. As we need a very young Army, we take them even before they are 10 plus or 10+2. for 20 or 25 years they give the best time of their youths and at 38-40 they have to retire to serve themselves and the society. We need to exploit their discipline, capabilities to work hard and training. That is why there are demand of ex-service personnel in enterprises, industries and security. A formal degree such as this opportunity offered by IGNOU will enhance both their education, capacities better second career.”

Welcoming the MoU, Army Adjutant General Lt Gen Mukesh Sabharwal termed the new move as “a fusion of visions of COAS and IGNOU VC Prof Pillai who had the nation at their heart.”

Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, IGNOU VC, referred to the national skills level of workforce. “It is about 5%, according to an ILO study, as against over 80% in advanced countries. It is an initiative for certification of skills, knowledge and training. This will create a revolutionary education system in the country in the areas of capacity-building, skills upgradation and vertical mobility. IGNOU has a lot of skills and skills development materials which it will make available to the Army. A person recruited by the Army gets real-life experience in training, knowledge and skills. Their entry into the Community College system will not only increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of the country to education and higher education, it will also impact the Gross Graduation Ratio (GGR). This is a major revolution. The universities and the Higher Education institutions of this country should take this model. This MoU will also ensure optimal utilisation of intellectual and infrastructural opportunities of the country.

Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Latha Pillai, reminded the audience that the community colleges are the best linkages between the left-out and the entrants to the higher education. “IGNOU and Army have potentials to make the Community College Movement successful, she said, adding, “After all, the community colleges are of the communities, for the communities and by the communities.”

In his vote of thanks, Director-General (Manpower Planning & Personnel Services) Lt Gen V K Chaturvedi said, “Nothing empowers a soldier more than knowledge. The degrees will stem the loss of the immense experience of the human resource, retiring from the Army.”

September 4 , 2009

IGNOU, Army sign MoU to set up 47 Community Colleges

New Delhi : Indira Gandhi National Open University and Indian Army today (Friday, September 4, 2009) signed a memorandum of understanding to start 47 Community Colleges at Regimental Army Training Academies, which will be turned into Army-IGNOU Community Colleges. These colleges collectively will be called Gyan Deep.

The MoU seeks to confer educational certification to soldiers within the parameters of IGNOU system, and recognise the “in-service” training imparted on them at the Army Training Academies. A 5-member Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) representing IGNOU and the Indian Army will be formed to put in place a structured curriculum for a two-year (four semesters, 64 credits) Associate Degree and well-defined guidelines for in-service soldiers to enhance their education and upgrade skills.

It is a historic MoU in the lexicon of the Indian Army, as, for the first time a strong step has been taken forward to utilise services of about 50,000 soldiers, who retire every year – an asset of disciplined, hardy, trained, intelligent human capital -- in the nation building processes. The degrees acquired through the community colleges will empower them enough to secure a second career in a vocation.

A community college is an alternative system of education which aims to empower individuals through appropriate skills development. The educational programmes in these colleges are tailor-made to the local needs and state-based requirements. The programmes are generally acceptable to workers in the target communities. The training and education in the community colleges help students get gainful employment, as the programmes are designed in collaboration with the local industry and communities.

Community colleges are wonderful opportunities for the school drop-outs, lateral entrants into the higher education and those in the workforce who find entry in the formal system rigid. The soldiers, who gather immense real-life experience, undergo hardiest training and have wonderful tenacity to brave tough situations for long hours find getting a job very difficult, as they don’t generally have formal academic qualification. The certificates gathered through the community colleges will ensure them the need-based skills development training.

For Army personnel, the community colleges are of high relevance. The Indian Army recruits personnel with three broad categories of educational qualification – below 12 class, class 12 pass and graduates and above. After retiring at a young age of 45, they often come across stiff competition in the job-market due to lack of a formal degree.

Touching upon this, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Deepak Kapoor said, “We are moving toward a future of real-life high technology, knowledge and competitive opportunities. We need a very high order of trained, professional and competent Army. The soldiers are expected to be the role models to the society. As we need a very young Army, we take them even before they are 10 plus or 10+2. For 20 or 25 years they give the best time of their youth and at 38-40 they have to retire to serve themselves and the society. We need to exploit their discipline, capabilities to work hard and training. That is why there are demands of ex-service personnel in enterprises, industries and security. A formal degree such as this opportunity offered by IGNOU will enhance both their education and capacities for better second career.”

Welcoming the MoU, Adjutant General Lt Gen Mukesh Sabharwal termed the new move as “a fusion of visions of COAS and IGNOU VC Prof Pillai who had the nation at their heart.”

Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, IGNOU VC, referred to the national skills level of workforce. “It is about 5%, according to an ILO study, as against 80% and above in South Korea and other advanced countries. It is an initiative for certification of skills, knowledge and training. This will create a revolutionary education system in the country in the areas of capacity-building, skills upgradation and vertical mobility. IGNOU has a lot of skills and skills development materials which it will make available to the Army. A person recruited by the Army gets real-life experience in training, knowledge and skills. Their entry into the Community College system will not only increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of the country to education and higher education, it will also enhance the Gross Graduation Ratio (GGR). This is a major revolution. The universities and the Higher Education institutions of this country should take this model. This MoU will also ensure optimal utilisation of intellectual and infrastructural opportunities of the country. The move will also evolve sound moral and character of the individuals”, he said.

Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Latha Pillai, reminded the audience that the community colleges are the best linkages between the left-out and the higher education. IGNOU and the Army have potentials to make the Community College Movement successful, she said, adding, “After all, the community colleges are of the communities, for the communities and by the communities.”

September 2, 2009

IGNOU inducts 35 speech - impaired in BA in Sign Language Programme

New Delhi : IGNOU today inducted 35 speech-impaired students to its state-of-the art novel Degree programme, BA in Sign Language. Five of them were foreign students coming from China, Nepal and three African countries – Kenya, Uganda and Brundi.

The induction was for the foundation course of the programme, which culminates in the 4-year Degree programme in Sign Language. The induction was inauguration by Vice Chancellor Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai in the IGNOU campus.

The course has been incepted and launched by IGNOU’s Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE). It has been developed in collaboration with the International Centre for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies (iSLanDS) at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in the UK.

Thirtyfive speech-impaired expressed, spontaneously with powerful imagination and verve, their willingness to learn the art and get a world-class degree. The degree will fetch them social status, career and dignity as humans. It is a dream come true for the speech-impaired community at large which never believed before that there could be anything more than just expressing in their sign language and spend life as an also-living entity of the society.

They are into a skill development programme which will have two components :

- Foundation Entry for Deaf Students (1-year full-time, on-campus)

- BA (Hons) in Applied Sign Language Studies (3-year full-time on-campus)

The modules of the programme have been developed by the iSLanDS Centre for teaching in India, beginning 2009. Teaching these courses will be jointly by UCLan and IGNOU teachers. Other partners will be drawn into teaching as and when necessary.

The move was novel in India. Launching this first-ever organised attempt to educate thousands of speech and hearing impaired students in the country, Prof Pillai said, “IGNOU is aiming to create through the programme sign language teachers and professionals to support the deaf. Teaching assistants in deaf education, and interpreter trainers are much in short supply in India. According to an estimate, only 5% of the deaf children attend schools in India. Even where special schools for the deaf exist, they have inadequate technical and teaching staff. It is crucial to create qualified deaf professionals in this field.”

The move was further explained by Prof PR Ramanujam, Director of STRIDE, who said, “Applied Sign Language Studies, or ASLS, is a relatively new area of study at Higher Education level. The field is in the crossroads of applied linguistics, sign languages and deaf communities. Sign languages are full-fledged natural human languages on a par with spoken languages at all levels of linguistic organisation. They are used as first or preferred languages by the communities of deaf people around the world, each country or region having its own sign language. When the study of sign language and deaf communities is brought to bear on the traditional areas of study in applied linguistics, such as first and second language acquisition, bilingualism, language pedagogy and the like, this results in a new subject area that can be called Applied Sign Language Studies.”

This responds to what the recent UN Convention on Disability pronounced, “Sign Language is to be an integral part of the educational, social and cultural life of deaf people and that bilingual education for the deaf using sign language is to be promoted.

September 2, 2009

IGNOU all set to become the global hub of telecentre academy

New Delhi :Indira Gandhi National Open University today hosted a two-day meeting of vice chancellors from universities of a consortium of 15 countries with a view to setting up skills development training centres and education in all village panchayats in the country and in rural settings globally. The countries which joined were USA, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, Uganda, Mozambique, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, and India. A global hub academy will be created and a consensus on it shape and action plan will be arrived at after the meeting. This will be announced on Tuesday at the Press Conference.

The meeting was convened by IGNOU to arrive at a consensus for a Letter of Interest (LoI) or an MoU to be signed by the members from the country in the consortium.

This meeting was a follow-up of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s declaration made last year for setting up a Skills Development ministry to stimulate collaboration and convergence among institutions which can develop skills among unskilled youths in India.

To the same goal, a Canada-based organisation, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), which runs telecentre.org Academy globally in partnership with a number of universities around the world for development of the grassroots population of the concerned countries, came forward to join the Indian movement. The ongoing meeting will set up a Consensus for an action plan and creating a Global Hub.

A number of Indian private organisations which are already working in this field -- such as Shrei Sahaj e_Village (eastern India), Pay6 (in 18 states), Spanco (Maharashtra), Network for Information and Computer Technologies (MP), Infotech (Chhattisgarh, MP) etc. -- have been roped in the IDRC-sponsored telecentre-org Academy initiative to tie up with IGNOU to launch a Global Hub for grassroots learning processes.
The Meeting is an outcome which the Information Technology department (DIT) of the Government of India was mulling since 2002.

Addressing an erudite gathering of the vice chancellors and their representatives in the ranks of deputy vice-chancellors and rectors, DIT secretary Dr R Chandrashekhar said, “We are all set to roll out over 1,30,000 telecentres in panchayati areas in the country within the middle of 2010. Already about a lakh telecentres have been set up. The Government feels that the scheme has to be expanded to each panchayats of the country nationwide and also help those who will need it. Though in the beginning it looks like a cyber café in rural settings, where you can do everything a cyber café provides for, it will soon evolve into a learning centres for the rural women and youths who cannot afford to cover distance for formal education.”

Mr Chandrasekhar appreciated the role played by telecentre operators in fulfilling the Government’s commitment towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Currently the telecentres are handling three problems, language, lack of IT literacy and that of basic literacy. Dr Chadrashekhar suggested, the telecentres can be cleverly dovetailed into a social empowerment tool. “IDRC can put all techniques to assiduously work out on it.”

The telecentre.org Academy is a unique partnership program, steered by the telecentre.org, which is a global group promoting telecentres around the world. After the tripartite agreement signed, the Global Hub will assume a name. The hub will train over a million people around the world in information entrepreneurship, which will emerge as a new profession in developing nations.

The information entrepreneurs will staff over 500,000 telecentres around the world, half of which will emerge in India alone in the name of Bharat Nirman Common Service Centres (BN CSCs).

Speaking on the occasion IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai highlighted the Bharat Nirman Common Service Centres will deliver high quality government to citizen (G2P) services in rural areas. With a view to boosting public-private partnership (PPP) a bouquet of private players have been assigned responsibilities to carry out the scheme at rural settings. The services are being brought to the door-steps of the rural homes, at an affordable, flexible and democratised means. The national purpose to upscale the standard skills of the rural workforce will naturally be boosted by this effort.
Professor Pillai detailed what the global hub academy will carry out, “A global curriculum and course structure will be created to fulfil the learning needs of the telecentre operators around the world. A set of common standards which will underpin implementation of the global course will be agreed upon. Similarly, a process of certification and linear academic growth path for the learners also will be agreed. The Letter of Interest or the MoU whichever we will be creating will define an operational framework for the participating universities, the telecentre networks and the host university that will steer the work of the academy.”

According to IDRC official Dr Basheerhamad Shadrach, who also doubles up as an anchor of the global telecentre.org Academy, the move towards establishing a consortium of universities is to certify the telecentre knowledge workers for a diploma program in over 20 nations to begin with. Dr Shadrach highlighted the salient features of the Academy which includes a global course curriculum delivered in more than 10 languages tailored to individual learner in his/her learning needs.

By auditing the global hub courses, an unemployed youth in developing nation can easily find a job as a telecentre operator. The academy of the global hub shall continue to encourage the alumni of any course with options to continue his/her academic career path to the extent of even obtaining an MBA in social entrepreneurship.

September 2, 2009

Mukul Wasnik launches IGNOU B.ED Spl.Edu.with RCI Collaboration

New Delhi : Union minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mr Mukul Wasnik today launched IGNOU’s ‘B. Ed Special Education and Foundation Course for In-Service Teachers’ and a ‘Foundation Copurse on Education of Children with Disabilities for in-service teachers. The programmes have been developed in collaboration with Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI).

Referring to the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full participation) Act 1995 (PWD Act), Mr Wasnik said, following the ‘inclusive education’ idea of the National Trust Act 1999, the government is formulating schemes to help the disabled children. One of the schemes is ‘Technology Development Projects in Mission Mode’ to provide cost-effective aids and appliances through application of technologies.

The minister also said that within the monsoon session of the Parliament an amendment to the Act will be sought to include all types of disabled-persons and also to enlarge the scope of the ACT.

The programme have been developed by the university’s centre, National Centre for Disability Studies (NCDS). The teachers’ training will be offered through distance learning and online modes. The programmes stress the necessity of training the teachers as the first priority.

While the B.Ed Special programme will be on offer for in-service teachers at 35 centres of the NCDS, the ‘Foundation’ course will be on offer at all IGNOU Regional Centres. The NCDS centres are listed in the ‘What’s New/B.Ed(Special Education)’ window of www.ignou.ac.in.

Minister promised all helps to IGNOU for development of empowerment and educational programmes for the disabled children. “A starkly visible change has come about on the rehabilitation scene in India in recent years”, he said, adding, “in consonance with the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full participation) Act 1995, seven national institutes or apex level institutions have been set up in each major areas of disabilities.” He said that the five Composite Regional centres at UP, MP, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and J&K would meet the goal.

NCDS director Dr Hemlata said that the programme was developed following the tenets of the Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyan and the mandate from the Persons with Disability ACT 1995, which lays emphasis on educating disabled children in their most appropriate environment. The salient aspects of the courseware of the foundation programme, which addresses the ‘Rights’ component of the Act.

Dr J P Singh, the Member Secretary of RCI, said, “Actual number of the disabled persons in India is still unknown, as many are still not counted or don’t report. However, roughly there is over 2% population of India suffering from some sort of disability. We also need to include other types of disability among people. We have developed about 16 categories of programme for the disabled children in the society for training and education. For that we need thousands of teachers, who also need to be educated specially to train or teach the disabled.”

September 2, 2009

IGNOU is gearing to take Community Colleges to N-E.

New Delhi:North East states will soon set up a score of community colleges. About 30 organisations from eight north-eastern states of the country faced a screening interview board at IGNOU headquarters last Thursday (20 August 2009) and presented their claims for setting up a community college in each of their premises.

An introductory meeting was held after the screening. The university’s designated unit, Educational Development for North East Unit (EDNERU), has decided to assign a community college to any applicant institute which is established and has adequate infrastructure to run the community vocational classes. Among applicants are some who are already running orphanages, homes for the elders and women destitutes and engaged in other charitable work.

Asked how many Community Colleges would be set up in the NE in the first phase, PVC Prof Om Prakash Mishra said that proposals were still coming. IGNOU will at present grant permission to about 25 established institutes. It will scan other applicants gradually.

“Our initiatives to foster and promote Community Colleges in the eight states of the North-East India would further deepen IGNOU’s commitment and penetration. Being the largest player in educational area of the North East, the Community College Scheme would further add to IGNOU’s vision and mission to the region,” he said.

In his inaugural address to the applicants, Vice Chancellor VN Rajasekharan Pillai explained how popular these colleges are in the Western countries. The concept needs to be developed well in India, he said, because India has the largest youth population of which only 5% in the age-group of 20-24 have obtained vocational skills through formal means. Industrialised countries have over 60% to 90%. “At present in the country, we have only 2.5 million vocational training seats, whereas 12.8 million enter the labour market every year,” he added.

IGNOU is working as the facilitating agency for such colleges. EDNERU deputy director Dr Jayashree Kurup briefed the applicants about the tasks of work they have to undertake should they be granted the Community Colleges. The context is the new initiatives to promote educational development both soft and hard skills in the Community Colleges.

The scheme is already operational in southern part of India, in about 120 institutions and NGOs. IGNOU will not directly fund the prospective institutions, but will put all efforts to bring funds to these institutes from various ministries and departments of the government.

A community college aims to generate skilled manpower in the job market. It has an open access admission policy. The students can enter and go out at any time s/he desires, suiting to his/her timings. The target groups for such colleges are drop-outs, late entrants to higher education and working people who find entry into the normal system of education rigid. The students are allowed to pursue continuing education through all meaningful formats – face-to-face, online, full-time, part-time. IGNOU has put a system in place by which the educational and vocational empowerment of students will be faster and they will be able to go for career-oriented qualification in which a three-year degree certificate will be required. On completion of the first two-years, with their time and space, the students will be eligible to get the Associate Degree. After that, if a student is willing to further his/her education and training, may be given direct entry to the third year of three-year degree course to get a graduation degree.

Quotable quotes:

1. Community Colleges gels well with what Late Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi said, “Education should inculcate a life-long habit of learning. And today, that is all the more necessary, because the corpus of knowledge in increasing at a tremendous pace.”

2. To quote National Knowledge Commission chairman, Sam Pitroda, “A community College is neither a people’s movement nor a parallel system of education. It is just a way of restructuring our education system, so that we can provide all opportunities to a large number of people with the ability to migrate. I see Community Colleges as instruments of mobility”.

3. Prof. VN Rajasekharan Pillai : “The government plans to open more Community Colleges across the country with focus on skill development, during the Eleventh Plan period. Such colleges provide an open-access admission policy. It fulfils the mandate of the National Skill Mission and bring hopes to drop-outs and lateral entrants to higher education.”

Emerging Trends and Challenges in Disability Studies.Role of Distance Education in Disability Studies. Barrier - free Environment. Disability and Law.Models of Disability Rehabilitation.Challenges in Curriculum Development in Disability Studies.Research Methodology in Disability Studies.Human Resource Development.Technological Development in Disability Rehabilitation.
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September 2, 2009

IGNOU reactivates collabaration with LBSNAA.

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University recently has reactivated collaboration with Mussoorie-based Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) for a masters programme, MA (Public Policy), for civil servants. The university is planning to launch it by mid-September.

A Joint Consultative Committee will soon be formed with representation of academics from both IGNOU and the LBSNAA. The JCC will ensure that the Ayyar Committee recommendations for continuous education of civil servants are well implemented. The training in the programme, and standard must respond to the norms of accreditation and assessment of IGNOU for certification. Coordination of the MA (Public Policy) is Prof. Pardeep Sahni.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor’s adviser for special projects Prof Vijay Kapoor, (IAS 1977 batch of Bihar cadre), said that the dissertations from the civil servant probationers need to meet the standard of IGNOU. Once it is charted down, the JCC will sit for meeting for the programme.

Necessity of the programme was felt owing to the changing social scenario of the country, to which the civil servants have to be highly focussed, particularly in matters relating to public policies of the government. The MA (Public Policy) will give special light in these areas.

September 2, 2009

Sheila Dixit Launches IGNOU MA in Gender Studies Programme.

New Delhi:Chief Minister Smt Sheila Dixit today in the IGNOU campus launched the IGNOU programme of MA in Gender Studies in face-to-face on-campus mode. Thirteen students have been given admission after tests and scrutiny, two are male applicants.

The programme have been developed by IGNOU School of Gender Development Studies for the current session. The school is functioning under the direction of reputed Hindi poet Savita Singh and is being supervised by PVC Dr Latha Pillai.

Women are the sources of power, which determine the power. Yet they are not given proper equal treatment in the society even after much spadework having been done today. Mentioning that the women are increasingly being viewed in the country as a source of economic prosperity and policy-making influence, Smt Dixit, in her inaugural address said, “We have brought the difference in male-female birth ratio by launching the ‘Ladli Scheme’, which is in sheer contrast to the birth ratio in Punjab and Haryana. We need to take similar schemes everywhere, in states, Parliament and in the UNO, if we can do that it will indeed create the model movement for a justiceable society.”

Lauding the IGNOU programme, she said, “IGNOU has introduced a lot of path-breaking innovative educational programmes for development of the society, but perhaps, this programme is so far the best of all.”

The Friday seminar was opened by veteran CPM politburo member and a Rajya Sabha MP Smt Brinda Karat. In her address Smt Karat said that Germaine Greer spoke about ‘feminism’. That is good in some way, but “Germaine Greer did not see the Dalit women of India, poverty-stricken slum-dwellers, women bred in rich Indian culture and ethos, so her concept does not address the entire world of women. In contrast to hers, Indian society believes in ‘womanism’, a term which is getting currency today.”

Mentioning efforts of Indian women for bringing in changes in their life for equality in rights, status, policy-making machinery and power, Smt Karat commented that even in the temple of democracy, Indian Parliament, sexist views are expressed without adequate protests. Discrepancies are galore, a glaring example is in the Judiciary, where, out of 620 High Court Judges, women judges number only 45.

Smt Karat complained that women are not given their rightful equality to males on pretexts of merit and capabilities. She challenged, “Question of merit of women is the most incorrect idea. In education women are outscoring males for quite some time now. In fact we need to think about creating a reservation in other way round”. But in agriculture, industry, job-market, politics, power-share, women have been pushed behind with unreasonable arguments.

Brinda Karat referred to the recent permission of 50% seat reservation in panchayats, and expressed that the same should be granted in assemblies and Parliament also to ensure equal opportunities for women.

She mentioned three factors which relate to Indian women’s status in the society.
The First is the denial of rights to women arguing merit, which is incorrect.
The Second is inadequate judgment of power, as wisdom in the decisions of the most powerful people should be examined in the first place, and that is not done, causing injuries to women cause. In this case, even some women are antagonistic to women causes, because they are bred in patriarchal ideologies.
And the third is, slow and steady change of mindset, which of late has started helping the woman. “There are welled-up supports from our male colleagues, which defies the patriarchal mindset of the society.”

The seminar came to end with PVC Professor Omprakash Mishra’s tongue-in-cheek comment, “The seminar on ‘Women in Power’ has turned into a seminar on ‘Women and Power’ There are women always who influence power in our society.”

August 13, 2009

IGNOU Starts first on-campus master's Programme,in Social Work.

New Delhi:What is common in Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa, Baba Amte, Acharya Vinoba Bhabe? Not alone that they all served the communities in their times to take the concept of service to humanity to a dizzy level of excellence, but also that, they never went to a school or college to learn social work. If they had gone to schools or colleges of graduating in social work, they probably would have been famous much before when they were – is the common refrain in the new School of Social Work (SOSW) at Indira Gandhi National Open University.

On Thursday (August 13, 2009), at EMPC facility of the university, IGNOU launched its first ever face-to-face on-campus master degree programme in Social Work. The two-year degree is titled as MA in Social Work (Philanthropic). The total number of students admitted in the first batch is 20, after written tests and scrutiny.

Addressing a gathering of the IGNOU faculty members, invited guests from Jamia Millia, Aditi College of Delhi University led by Dr Sanjay Bhat. head of the department of the DU Social Work, and others and the inducted students, PVC Dr DK Choudhry said, “Social Work emerged as a discipline over a century ago in the West. In 1898, Mary Richmond, who was involved in philanthropy movement in the Americas, appealed for formal training in social work. She was the author of the first social work textbook, ‘Social Diagnosis’. In response to her call, a New York charity organisation began a six-week training programme in social work and philanthropy. Soon, that programme was developed into a yearlong tryst with the New York School of Philanthropy, which later rechristened itself as New York School of Social Work.”

Today across the world, there are over 2,000 schools of social work. India alone has over 250, mostly spread across the south India and Maharashtra. All religions have tenets in social service. India tops in them, hence why not a school to train how to take care of the destitute, orphans, streetchildren, social outcaste, leprosy-affected, physically challenged etc.

Lauding the initiative, Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai expressed hope that the new batches of philanthropists will emerge every year after two years from now who soon will become the harbingers of social change. Eminent social workers, empowered by aptitude and qualification according to the UGC norms, will take their classes in the campus and guide them in the field work.

The programme is the brainchild of the Vice Chancellor. Welcoming the inducted students, Professor Pillai said, “You will see here how the Information and Communication Technologies inherently merge in the studies. The application of ICTs in the masters programme will become an important tool for social mobility. There are good opportunities in careers in social work throughout the world.”

Professionals in the field of social work have been charted for the face- to-face classes. The students were given enlightening guidelines about the course by Joseph Sebastian, CEO of Indo-Global Social Services Society (IGSSS), who himself is likely to take a few important classes.

Director of the SOSS, Prof. Gracious Thomas gave a detailed outline of the programme and how students would study it in the classroom sessions. He also called upon the selected students to receive the first course book from the Vice Chancellor.

September 2, 2009

IGNOU extends admission date .

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) today extended the date for admission to 129 programmes mentioned in its Common Prospectus and 125 programmes listed in Separate Prospectuses up to August 17 with late fee of Rs 200.

This was announced by Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai at a videoconferencing with IGNOU’s regional directors, which was telecast live on the university’s Gyan Darshan channel.

Date for admission to 58 programmes, including Ph.Ds, for which entrance test, interview, and face-to-face schedules were announced earlier, will remain unchanged, said Officer on Special Duty for Students Registration (OSD-SRD) of the university, Mr K Laxman.

September 2, 2009

IGNOU launches e-Learning Centre at Alexandria University.

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) yesterday (Thursday, July 30) launched an e-Learning Centre at Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt, through videoconferencing at its e-African Satellite-mediated Network facility.

Vice Chancellor Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai launched the centre. Egyptian ministers for Higher Education Dr Hany Mahfouz Helal, Communication and Information Technology Minister Dr Tarek Kamel and President of Alexandria University, Prof Hassen Nadir attended the launching ceremony and applauded. Many dignitaries including Indian Ambassador to Egypt Mr Ramachandran Swaminathan also attended the launch. IGNOU’s move to take e-learning facilities and education to the Egyptian university was the first ever by any university from India. It is among many other similar developments under the Pan African e-African Network Project which are in the pipeline.

Professor Pillai was accompanied by Director of IGNOU’s International Division Dr Silima Nanda and Joint Secretary of Telecommunications Consultant India Limited (TCIL), Mr JS Chhabra. The IGNOU e-Learning Centre in the Alexandria University will be managed, maintained, serviced by TCIL engineers at Alexandria.

India launched the Pan African e-Network Project in 2004, following former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s proposal at Johannesburg (September 16, 2004) to connect all 53 African Union nations by Satellite and fibre optic cable network to provide tele-education, tele-medicine, Internet and Voice-Over Internet Protocol (IP) Services. The ministry of External Affairs is the responsible body for the project whereas the TCIL is the implementing agency.

IGNOU is the nodal agency of the e-African Network Project for handling academics, logistics, and operational aspects with technical support from TCIL. This apart, IGNOU will also disseminate education in subjects like management and education in post-graduate, graduate and certificate levels.

The tele-medicine education will be provided by six super-spacialty hospitals of India, namely, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences of Kochi, Appollo Hospital of Channai, CARE Hospital of Hyderabad, Fortis Hospital of NOIDA, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre of New Delhi and Narayana Hrudayalay of Bangalore.

As on July 23, the total number of African countries which signed aqgreement with India is 40, four latest were Cape Verde, Lesotho, Liberia and Swaziland. The pilot project of the Network was started on March 5, 2007 from IGNOU studio in a teleconferencing mode.

September 2, 2009

IGNOU signs up with Rail Institute to groom new genre of skilled Personel .

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University today (August 4) signed a broad perspective MoU with Institute of Rail Transport (IRT) to develop a gross framework of training and academic collaboration. The principal objectives are to develop high quality educative programmes of international standard in rail transport management.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai and Chairman of the Railways Board Mr ---------------- supervised the function, which was attended by a host of members of the Railways Board and a number of top-notch officials of the ministry.

The MoU envisages that appropriate mechanisms will evolved for effective generation of skilled officials in management of the complex world of rail transport, relative application of ICTs, ports, containers, logistics management and many other associated training and education. A slew of academic programmes in various levels from short-term trainings to Certificate, Diploma, Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. Degrees will be offered at all IRT study centres spread across the country along the railways with a view to democratising employment-oriented education and training.

The MoU is very close IGNOU’s cherished goal to set up study centres using the railways’ fibre optic cable network at stations all over in the country to make access of education and vocational training easy to youths in the vicinity of the stations.

IGNOU’s Centre for Corporate Education, Training and Consultancy (CCET&C), which will join the IRT experts in the Joint Coordiantion Committee to develop the framework, will introduce the university’s assignment components for continuous learning inputs, evolve and set up study centre concept suitable to IRT context and introduce the latest ICTs in the pedagogy. IGNOU will define criteria of admission, finalise the registration processes with the IRT, design courses, delivery of training and education, review mechanism, redesign IRT’s existing courses suitable for certification and develop effective students support network using the IRT facilities across the Indian railways.

The IRT will bear the entire cost of the project. It will identify experts in rail transport ad develop materials for training. The IRT will also identify study centres where the courses would be run, appoint coordinators, at all training centres, identify training areas, pay consultancy fees to faculty, appoint exclusive consultancy at CCET&C and also financially support at least two Research Assistants for their PhDs.

The share of the fees will be at the ratio of 30:70 favouring the IRT. The copyright of the study and training materials will be held by the both institutions jointly.

The broad framework is likely to generate a good number of skilled handlers and experts in rail transport areas.

September 2, 2009

IGNOU signs up with rail institute to groom new genre of skilled personnel .

IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai and Chairman of the Railway Board Mr SS Khurana participated in the function, which was attended by a host of members of the Railway Board and a number of top-notch officials of the ministry.

Addressing a gathering of Railway Board members, officials and mediapersons, Professor Pillai said, “This MoU will go a long way to start new domains of education delivery in the country as we are looking forward to take education to interiors of India alongside the railways. The IRT centres will be a sound step to develop rail transport-related vocational education and training and skill development of the youths, which will ensure their employability. It could become a mofdel for many other areas.”

Lauding the IGNOU offer, the Railway Board Chairman Mr Kurana said, “IRT will benefit from the IGNOU expertise and make education more real and broadly recognised.”

The MoU was signed by Dr US Tolia, Registrar of IGNOU and Dr AP Ramanan, Executive Director of IRT.

The MoU envisages that appropriate mechanisms will evolved for effective generation of skilled officials in management of the complex world of rail transport, relative application of ICTs, ports, containers, logistics management and many other associated training and education. A slew of academic programmes in various levels from short-term trainings to Certificate, Diploma, Bachelor’s, Master’s and Research programmes will be offered at all IRT study centres spread across the country along the railways with a view to democratising employment-oriented education and training.

IRT has trusted training culture in rail transport management over decades. It has institutes in all corners of the country. It runs four dedicated training cum education programmes in the rail transport domain. Boosted by IGNOU’s expertise and distance education pedagogy and supported by IGNOU certification, IRT hopes to hone its students’ skills further.

IGNOU’s Centre for Corporate Education, Training and Consultancy (CCET&C), which will join the IRT experts in the Joint Coordination Committee to develop the framework, will introduce the university’s assignment components for continuous learning inputs, evolve and set up study centre concept suitable to IRT context and introduce the latest ICTs in the pedagogy. IGNOU will define criteria of admission, finalise the registration processes with the IRT, design courses, delivery of training and education, review mechanism, redesign IRT’s existing courses suitable for certification and develop effective students support network using the IRT facilities across the Indian railways.

The IRT will bear the entire cost of the project. It will identify experts in rail transport and develop materials for training. The IRT will also identify study centres where the courses would be run, appoint coordinators, at all training centres, identify training areas, pay consultancy fees to faculty, appoint exclusive consultancy at CCET&C and also financially support at least two Research Assistants for their PhDs.

The broad framework is likely to generate a good number of skilled handlers and experts in rail transport areas.

September 2, 2009

IGNOU steps up moves to increase overseas outreach.

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University decided to extend the outreach of its 52 overseas partner institutions by bolstered logistics and back-end support. Though the majority of students it enrols are non-resident Indians, the number of nationals of local countries are increasing.

At a gathering of about 20 coordinators from 13 nations which joined the three-day meeting that concluded on Friday, Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai said, “You are IGNOU’s representatives abroad. We shall work to fulfil all your plans and programmes in terms of logistics. We shall remove all bottlenecks that impede in development work through capacity-building.” A number of industry-oriented programmes have been taken up by the partner institutions for launching in their respective nations.

On Thursday evening, 13 ambassadors and their representatives attended the dinner thrown by Professor Pillai in honour of the coordinators of the countries. The 13 nations were Kenya, Ethiopia, Nepal, Afghanistan, Kyrghyzstan, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Singapore. The envoys and coordinators by and large acknowledged that the Open and Distance Learning as pedagogy is going to be the future look of higher education world over. They appreciated that increasingly countries are being drawn to the ODL and are looking up at IGNOU for their ODL programmes.

During the three-day conference, a slew of issues related to promotion of education from India (IGNOU), quality of education, employability, equivalence of degrees from IGNOU and from universities in those countries and mutual exchange of capacity-building came up for discussion during the meeting. Most suggestions from the coordinators were accepted for consideration by the various competent authorities in the university. A single window International Desk will be set up in Student Registration Division (SRD) and Students Evaluation Division (SED), each, for speeding up coordination with the partner institutions in matters relating to queries about confirmation of admission, receipts, assignments, results, grade etc. IGNOU is likely to recruit a few people through fresh advertisement to man these Desks.

At present, IGNOU programmes run by the coordinators at International PIs are Management, Masters, Computers, B.Ed, and Tourism Studies. The recent bouquet of programmes in Urdu and other Languages, Health, Social Work, Sustainable Development etc. are also gathering people’s attention. IGNOU’s new School of Foreign Languages (SOFL) was an immediate draw for the coordinators for business, commerce, conference and tourism translations.

The issue of holding examination according to Indian Standard Time (IST) came up for discussion quite often in the conference. At many countries, the IST is advanced by three or more hours, which means the students will have to take examinations very early in the morning everyday. In places like USA, it is in the middle of the night. Suggestions were: Either issue a different set of question papers for the PIs or despatch the question papers in advance.

To both suggestions, SED expressed reservations, keeping in mind the correct uniformity in evaluation processes and the chances of leakage through advance technologies of communications. “Fair deal must be given to all examinees both in India and abroad”, affirmed Registrar SED Dr Srikant Mohapatra. “The question papers are at present being disseminated through our embassies in the PI countries. The embassies are doing wonderful job, which include quality invigilation at the times of the exams. It will not be fair to disturb the system,” he observed.

The conference has become a regular platform for the PIs. Issues like inter-weaving of information and communication technologies in academic programmes, delivery mechanism etc are thought-provoking. Says, Dr Silima Nanda, Director of International Division of IGNOU, "The PIs are our promoters. We are expanding through their support and cooperation. They work just as our Regional Centres work within the country. The annual conference, therefore, is the proper platform for mutual sharing of ideas of both IGNOU and its overseas PIs. "

September 2, 2009

IGNOU training of urban co-op bank managers for loan recovery begins.

New Delhi:IGNOU’s School of Law (SOL) today started a four-day residential training programmes of Cooperative Bank officials on Securitisation Act and various socio-economic aspects associated with the Act, in collaboration with National Federation of Cooperative Urban Banks & Credit Societies Ltd (NAFCUB). The programme will focus mainly on “Legal aspects of Recovery Management and Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SRFAESI) Act 2002”.

About 20 senior executives from urban cooperative banks across the nation have joind the training sessions. Various ideas relating to machinery available for recovery of loans under various laws for urban cooperative banks, legal impediments for enforcing the SRFAESI Act, proper execution of loan documents, important provisions of the SRFAESI Act 2002, Debt Recovery Tribunal Act 1993, Civil Procedure Code 1908 and the Limitation Act 1963 and Enforcement of Security Interest Rules 2002, will be discussed.

Eminent speakers will deliberate on these issues. According to sources in the SOL, some of them are experts from the Reserve Bank of India, reputed financial institutions and the faculty from the SOL. It is likely that the lectures of the RBI experts will be telecast live through the University’s Gyan Darshan channel.

Inaugurating the programme at IGNOU Convention Centre, IGNOU Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Om Prakash Mishra lauded the efforts of empowering the bank officials with inputs of knowledge and training in matters relating to loan recovery in rural scenes, on which the cooperative banks exist. “NAFCUB has come out with a very difficult topic. In 2008, Honourable Supreme Court observed that bank loan recovery agents must be given training. We thought that this is an area we should explore to work. There is a difference between cooperative banks and commercial banks. Of the two groups, the cooperative banks are in greater disadvantage, given the type of clientele they have to handle and parametres they have to follow. But cooperative banks also enjoy one basic advantage. They are closer to people than the commercial banks. They know their people. Indeed, the cooperative banks were created to help farmers. Without loans, cooperative banks cannot exist. At the same time, without recovery of the loaned amounts and rotating them for further loans, the cooperative banks cannot exist. Therefore, there is a necessity to train the recovery officials.”

Good drafting for an Act is very necessary to rule out ambiguity in purpose and action. The draft of the Securitisation Act came under scanner in the meeting by the officials enrolled to take the training.

Chief Executive Office of NAFCUB Mr D Krishna was present in the inaugural function. Referring to the cooperative banks’ challenges in rural and urban India, Krishna highlighted certain areas where the NAFCUB is approaching the government for empowerment. The NAFCUB deputy director Yogesh Sharma explained that for better management of the recovery problems, the bankers need to know their customers and credit appraisal documents. The SOL, a vibrant school of IGNOU, is mulling to organise more training classes for managers of urban cooperative banks and recovery machinery.

September 2, 2009

IGNOU to host the global telecentre academy for telecentre operators.

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University today hosted a two-day meeting of vice chancellors from universities of a consortium of 15 countries with a view to setting up skills development training centres and education in all village panchayats in the country and in rural settings globally. The countries which joined were USA, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, Uganda, Mozambique, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, and India. A global hub academy will be created and a consensus on it shape and action plan will be arrived at after the meeting. This will be announced on Tuesday at the Press Conference.

The meeting was convened by IGNOU to arrive at a consensus for a Letter of Interest (LoI) or an MoU to be signed by the members from the country in the consortium.

The meeting was a follow-up of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s declaration made last year for setting up a Skills Development ministry to stimulate collaboration and convergence among institutions which can develop skills among unskilled youths in India.

Addressing an erudite gathering of the vice-chancellors, deputy vice chancellors and rectors, Secretary of the Department of Information Techonolgy (DIT) Dr R Chandrashekhar said, “DIT is all set to roll out 1,30,000 telecentres in the panchayati areas by the mid-2010.” To the same goal, a Canada-based organisation, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), which runs telecentre.org Academy globally in partnership with a number of universities around the world for development of the grassroots population of the concerned countries, came forward to join the Indian movement. The ongoing meeting will set up a Consensus for an action plan and creating a Global Hub.

A number of Indian private organisations which are already working in this field -- such as Shrei Sahaj e_Village (eastern India), Pay6 (in 18 states), Spanco (Maharashtra), Network for Information and Computer Technologies (MP), Infotech (Chhattisgarh, MP) etc. -- have been roped in the IDRC-sponsored telecentre-org Academy initiative to tie up with IGNOU to launch a Global Hub for grassroots learning processes.
The Meeting is an outcome which the Information Technology Department (DIT) of the Government of India was mulling since 2002.

Dr Chandrashekhar said, “Already about a lakh telecentres have been set up. The Government feels that the scheme has to be expanded to each panchayats of the country nationwide and also help those who will need it. Though in the beginning it looks like a cyber café in rural settings, where you can do everything a cyber café provides for, it will soon evolve into a learning centres for the rural women and youths who cannot afford to cover distance for formal education.”

The telecentre.org Academy is a unique partnership programme, steered by the telecentre.org, which is a global group promoting telecentres around the world. After the tripartite agreement signed, the Global Hub will assume a name. The hub will train over a million people around the world in information entrepreneurship, which will emerge as a new profession in developing nations.

The information entrepreneurs will staff over 500,000 telecentres around the world, half of which will emerge in India alone in the name of Bharat Nirman Common Service Centres (BN CSCs).

Speaking on the occasion IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai highlighted that the Bharat Nirman Common Service Centres will deliver high quality government to citizen (G2C) services in rural areas. With a view to boosting public-private partnership (PPP) a bouquet of private players have been assigned responsibilities to carry out the scheme at rural settings. The services are being brought to the door-steps of the rural homes, at an affordable, flexible and democratised means. The national purpose to upscale the standard skills of the rural workforce will naturally be boosted by this effort.

Professor Pillai detailed what the global hub academy will carry out, “A global curriculum and course structure will be created to fulfil the learning needs of the telecentre operators around the world. A set of common standards which will underpin implementation of the global course will be agreed upon. Similarly, a process of certification and linear academic growth path for the learners also will be agreed. The Letter of Interest or the MoU whichever we will be creating will define an operational framework for the participating universities, the telecentre networks and the host university that will steer the work of the academy.”

September 2, 2009

IGNOU hosts telecentre.academy hub,a global charter made .

New Delhi:Universities from 15 countries, including IGNOU, today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a telecentre.org Academy to be established soon. The Academy will have its hub at IGNOU campus, and will function like a school. A global charter has been constructed for application.

At a meeting with mediapersons this evening at India Habitat Centre (Magnolia Hall), Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai announced that the telecentre.org Academy in each village will gradually turn into multimedia centres for both Business to Citizens (B2C) and Government to Citizens (G2C) spread across the countries where the signatory universities function and also to other parts of the world in the long run. “It will be a hub of learning through the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) -- such as computers, Internet, mobile Telephony and others – to empower and educate various skills of the people in rural areas. The training of skills will encompus just about everything in line with what the Government of India’s Department of Information Technology (DIT) was envisioning since 2002.”

The telecentr.org Academy in India will currently function to implement 1,30,000 telecentres set up by mid-2010 with the help of other private telecentres already working in this direction. It is thought that the telecentres in rural settings in India alone will generate about one lakh jobs soon within a year as telecentre operators after they get trained in the existing telecentres. Therefore, the current drive will be to train the existing operators.

Asked about the quality of the training and their employability in the international markets, Professor Pillai said, “That is exactly why this meeting for two days was convened. We want a standard curriculum for running and training in these telecentres implemented in all signatory countries. The standard will be rigidly followed and upscaling standard also will be monitored by the committee entrusted with the responsibility of managing these centres. Certification from the universities in the respectve region will empower the successful candidates for employments world over. Stric accreditation and assessment mechanism will be in place to certify the upscaling of the skill of the candidates.”

The genesis of this meeting and consensus was in 2004 when Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh announced formation of a Skills Development ministry with a view to bolster skills level of average workforce of the country. The Canada-based IDRC, which was already working in this direction in other parts of the world, soon joined hands with IGNOU to take the challenge globally.

In India, each telecentre is likely to become a Community College near the doorstep of rural and urban people who are disadvantaged about pursuing education and drop out of school and colleges. Soon after these telecentre may also become the hub for higher education pursuits at grassroots level.

The mediapersons were addressed by Professor Opuda Asibo John, Vice Chancellor of Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda and Professor Raul Sanchez, Vice Chancellor of Universidad de La Fontera, Temuco, Chile, among others.

Members of the delegates of universities from 12 countries were present in the Press Conference. The countries present at the Conference were Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uganda, Mozambique, Philippines, Hungary, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and India.

September 2, 2009

IGNOU starts masters in Actuarial Science on-campus Classes.

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University recently (Monday, 17 Aug, 2009) stated its on-campus face-to-face masters programme in Actuarial Science. Twentyfive boys and girls have been given admission after written tests and interview. .

Actuarial Science was conventionally a part of economics studies. It is only recent times, the importance of the subject as an intensive pursuit in studies of actuarial aspects of the knowledge economy has been realised. There are only a handful of institutions where actuarial science as a subject is being taught and certified. IGNOU’s on-campus programme for an MSc in Actuarial Science has drawn huge responses From about a thousand applicants, only 25 students have been shortlisted through a written test and interview.

Stressing the need of the programme, IGNOU PVC Dr D K Chauhdhry detailed how with the growing economy of India, the actuarial aspects of economy is also inflating. Therefore, demands for actuaries in business of insurance, statistics, BOP services, funding agencies like World bank, ADB etc. assets management in commercial banks, loan-issuing finance companies, and a slew of others business areas, demands for actuaries is increasing everyday.

Addressing the enrolled students, Director of the IGNOU School of Vocational Studies (SOVET), Prof C G Naidu said, “It is a high demand niche area subjects. Actuaries are busier than top-notch executives of the country. Actuaries handle multi-disciplinary subjects, and their life is induced in constant application of mathematics, statistics and interpretative activities, which talk reality. Actuaries therefore take a no-nonsense approach to dogging issues in economics for the organisation they serve. This course will help students get entry level manager’s jobs through apprenticeship.”

Teachers of SOVET, who introduced themselves to the enrolled students, and all of them are very young and budding talent in their respective industries, detailed how the course will be taught in classrooms, some will be telecast live on the Gyan Darshan channels of the university. There will be two special Apprenticeship Papers in the MSc in Actuarial programme. One of them is Actuarial Risk Management, which is a novel innovation in the courseware, as no university world over ever developed on the area, though real-life business practices always handled these. IGNOU’s SOVET has developed this area with a concrete comprehensive pedagogy and applications at apprenticeship.

Veteran actuary Mr S J Gidwani, Secretary General of Mumbai-based Institute of Actuarial Society and Insurance Institute of India, explained the call of actuaries in the development and growth through honing knowledge economy skills. “The highest penetration of the science in the insurance industry has been made in Taiwan and Korea. It is over 11% more than what they have done in China and 5% more than what have been achieved in India. Toda actuarial science shares about 21% of the market economy in India, which is however, 2% less that what was achieved in 2005. In these countries about 25% revenue comes through application of principles of actuarial science in non-life insurance. The studies will help us contribute more in generating GDP growth in the economy. Knowledge of actuaries are vital even in technological fields. You can make a lot of difference in the way the society you live in conducts.”

Consulting Actuary of the Oriental Insurance Company, Prof. Y P Sabharwal explained how meaningful and serious jobs the actuaries do in a civil society. “It is a different multi-discipline course in which equation of Information Technologies (ITs) and statistical interpretation are the basics. Any figure that actuaries give, is the final on which even the top brass of the organisation generally don’t have a say but only have to abide by. Their interpretation is data-driven and therefore cannot be rulled out of reckoning by any stroke of imagination. The actuaries can make or break an organisation, financially. That’s why this course needs to be studied through rigorous practices.”

Both Mr Gidwani and Prof Sabharwal have been charted in the panel of teachers of the IGNOU programme of MSc in Actuarial Science. Happy at their acceptance of the offer, Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice chancellor of IGNOU said, “It is a very different area of science. IGNOU has been running many face-to-face programmes in institutions of core scientific areas in various regions of the country. But for the first time 16-programmes have been started in the campus in face-to-face mode. Of these Actuarial Science programmes has been an immense draw. We shall work out with the Actuarial Science Society of Mumbai to ensure practical training sand Apprenticeships. The syllabus has been made compatible to world-class actuarial practices and studies. Let us develop this programme as the Model Programme of Actuarial Science, and also as one of unique institute-university collaboration.”

Addressing the young lecturers, Professor Pillai said, “Along with enrolled students you also can contribute to this capacity-building mission of IGNOU.”

September 2, 2009

IGNOU symposium on OER ends with Action Plan.

New Delhi:When you search for a study input in the google, it is like boiling the ocean. But if you search for it in a dedicated Open Educational Resources (OER), it is doable. Not only that you can get many inputs from various universities on the same subject, and enrich your knowledge. If you want a degree or a certificate for your knowledge, you have to take admission to a particular university and take the tests recommended by it. The OER is exciting too, because the future higher education or knowledge gain will become absolutely information and communication technology centric (ICT-centric), world over.

The two-day symposium on OER by Indira Gandhi National Open University ended with firm notes of a six-point Action Plan taken for a year: (i) Existing ICT facilities and unused options will be expanded and exploited fully; (ii) Content repositories will be developed in as many subjects as possible, (iii) Translation of those content will be organized steadily, (iv) Scope of Community Radios will have to be enhanced, (v) Common access to OER will be created through free softwares like Skype, and (vi) Metadata will be created.

Due to sudden exigencies NKC Chairman Mr Sam Pitroda and IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai could not be present in the Press Conference. Former PUne Iniversity Vice Chancellor and an adviser to NKC Prof Ashok C Kolaskar and MIT Dean and another adviser to NKC Prof. Vijay Kumar took questions from mediapersons.

Addressing mediapersons, Prof Kolaskar said, “We have planned to develop a mechanism to create and make accessible standard, quality, usable and appropriate coursewares for Open and Distance Learning (ODL), Open Education (OE) in forms of repositories. There will be open access opportunities. These open coursewares (OCWs) are partly available in many pars of the country at present. China for example, has the maximum courseware made accessibly open, so are OCWs of many Ameican and European universities. But we don’t have the mechanism to access these free of cost, nor does everybody know the standard techniques of accessing them. This symposium addressed these issues for one and a half day, ending today.”

Asked what the current project wanted to achieve, Prof Kumar said, “All these are dependent on government policies. There is policy requirement in Intellectual Property Rights issues relating to access and use of the indigenous knowledge subjects, advocacies, infrastructure development, utilization of fibre optic cable network. So this project is in a pilot stage. We shall create mechanisms to make sure that the OER in indigenous knowledge be usefully exploited. Many countries have already formed OER Consortium for the same purpose.”

Stress has been made for developing IT mechanism for accessing and preserving traditional knowledge codification, in which case even translation will not be a priority area, as the codification itself can lead to understanding. However, as Prof. Pillai had stressed in his inaugural speech, there has to be a mechanism in place to identify and document prior art.

The symposium ended with the notes of firm resolution to acknowledge the role of multi-media application, to make programmes interesting to draw popular attention for the reference and use of the OER, educate the drop-outs about the wonders the IT opportunities have for them. It also resolved to develop community-level partnership in each country about issues like general education, computer literacy, documentation of environmental and ecological stock, systems to bring in the sync the players of all types – governmental, private, semi-governmental, individual, and communities.

“We need to develop creative commerce in which employability will be ensured and share alike thought process to make all these happen,” said Prof Vijay Kumar. The current Action Plan is for a year.

September 2, 2009

IGNOU discuss Knowledge commission recommendations for an action plan.

New Delhi:Indira Gandhi National Open University today (Aug 20, 2009) started a two-day symposium on Open Educational Resources for Network-Enabled Education. The symposium aims at drawing a consensus for a standard Action Plan to identify implications and implement the strategies for the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) Recommendations on Distributed Educational Opportunity for the common people.

Chairman of NKC Mr Sam Pitroda was the chief guest of the symposium. Joint secretary of Ministry of Human Resource Development Mr N K Sinha, Eminent professors Ashok C Kaloskar, Dr BK Gairola, Professor Vijay Kumar from Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dr Subbaiah Arunachalam of IIT Madras, IGNOU PVC KR Srivathsan, former IIT, Kanpur Director and IIIT-M Director, Prof. Kushal Sen of IIT Delhi and a host of IT luminaries joined the discussion.

The whole question is about developing the knowledge economy and just not about IT education among masses. Stressing this point, in his key note address, Mr Pitroda said,

Welcoming Mr Pitroda and the galaxy of IT scientists and professionals, Vice Chancellor Professor VN rajasekharan Pillai the strengths of IGNOU as having the wide range of quality materials. IGNOU recently signed MoU with telecentre to develop quality managment of tele education centres with support of over 15 universities of the world. He mentioned about IGNOU’s quality of resources, and requested the luminaries to examine how these materials can be made easily accessible to everyone for a sound knowledge economy of the country.

He said, “Enhancing the reach of education is the main aim for us, and the deliberations on OER will facilitate this aspects of open access, in the light of the recommendations of the National Knowledge Comission appointed by the Prime Minister of India. The NKC's recommendations have also facilitated the initiation of the National Mission of Education (NME) through ICTs. There are many porjects such as eGyanKosh, NPTEL SAKSHAT which are in operation in the country. OER issues and opportunities would be the focus of the deliberations, and facilitate concrete steps and framework towards implementation of the same.

“The NKC was established to build capacity to develop knowledge, it was not about education, it was about knowledge. Thus, we covered: literacy, libraries, transalation, affairmative action, knowledge networks, etc in almost all areas; creation of knowledge, and how it is created: copyright, patents, etc. including traditinal knowledge. There is no documentation of over 12,000 Indian medicinal plants in India. A foundation was established 15 years ago. Role of knowledge as governance was also discussed. Similar is the status of Indian ecological resources, environment,” we need to work on these Documentation is necessary. Initially we did not have money. Now we have. Here is a technology which can document everything for even the common for easy access. We will not have any problem relating to Intellectual Property Rights,” he said.

He said that all recommedations are on the web. Over 300 were given by NKC. Many have been used now, such as Right to Education. Another recommendation was for a National Knowledge Network (NKN) with have been 10 GB bandwidth to increase collaboration. We produced fibre much more than we could use. So why not use them. “We started dialogue with Railtel, Powergrid and decided to use these fibre optic cable network for bandwidth. “Unfortunately education and health sectors did not exploit the advantage of the fibre optic cable network and the bandwidth opportunities. Many websites in India, including the IITs do not have good websites. With so much IT capacity, things are not happening. We have to learn how to use the IT effectively,” He stressed.

Mr N.K. Sinha highlighted the government steps taken for exploiting the IT initiatives through the NKC. Sinha elaborated how the sectors like education, health, repositories are successfully exploiting the bandwidth advantages gradually and steadily. He stressed the government steps on the recommendations of the NKC and hoped by the next two yearsm things will look up much brighter.

He touched upon a slew of points, “Every content should have metadata from the perspective of individual learners. How to do it is the issue? Community of experts can help to organize it. At the same time our documentation network should be strong enough to make one able to access courseware of other universities, colleges, databases of researches properly. That will also erode most part of the irritants on Intellectual Property Rights issues. That is why we need the Open Courseware (OCW) avavilability.”

IT professors Prof. Ashok S. Kolaskar, Prof. Vjay Kumar, Prof. Subbaiah Arunachalam and ther speakers insisted that the nation must be able to build up a strong National Knowledge Network to make the OCW possible. That would help students communities from all parts of the world, even peper-to-peer solutions of problems through chat, wikis, interactive Web 2.0 advantages. Empowerment to these directions is complete, if we do these, they stressed.

PVC Prof K R Srivathsan and Prof Uma Kanjilal, Director of IGNOU School of Social Sciences, explained with convincing illustrations how IGNOU had already made the spade work in the realm of OCW and knowledge networking.

Teacher training was an important aspect in the entire symposium, as the speakers seriously examined the situation where the students are willing to learn and master computers and the Web, whereas the teaching communities are playing truants. “We need to address this situation seriously”, said most speakers, “as teachers must appreciate that the nation has to progress to a seamless education domain, where technologies make solutions easy.

Students need to use the resources made available through the networking in virtual platforms, and “we have to facilitate the Virtual Knowledge Resources and Management(VIKRAM)” said a speaker. India needs to identify resources on global benchmarking of resources, they concluded, as the IT luminaties sat down to address situations for a plausible Action Plant of the NKC at IGNOU, which will be announced tomorrow.

September 2, 2009

IGNOU starts classroom teaching of masters in journalisim and mass communication.

New Delhi:The approach road to IGNOU is likely to get a facelift. Today Union Urban Development Minister Dr Jaipal Reddy promised about that. His promise was candid and in sync with the tone he addressed the modern day journalism when he spoke on the occasion of the commencement of the IGNOU School of Journalism and News Media Studies (SOJNMS) MA programmes in Journalism and Mass Communication (MJMC) and Electronic Media Production and Management (MEPM).

The two programmes have been developed with world-class inputs from professionals and academics in the profession of journalism and mass communication. The courseware in print were distributed to the selected students.

He said that the modern age is said to be characterised by freedom of press. Yet, ironically, in half the world there is no freedom of Press, said Union Minister for Urban Development Dr Jaipal Reddy, who had a good stint at journalism all his life. “In India we only think that it is free. However, journalists have to abide by facts. Nepolean who was a continental conqueror once said, that he was more afraid of three hostile newpapers than a thousand canons. That is the power of the media.”

Addressing a chock-a-block auditorium of IGNOU faculty, 25 selected and enrolled students and mediapersons, Dr Reddy insisted that reporters must be factual absolutely, “As Sir Piscot said ‘Facts are secret but comments are free’, you must be objective, as objectivity is absolutely ideal. We must be true to facts as closely as possible. Though facts are interpreted by people according to their taste and mindset, yet the facts when reported cannot be ruled out.”

Dr Reddy was highly critical about the 24-hour channels which churn out stories most of which are not correct. Theirs is more ‘Churnalism’ than Journalism as in 24-hour slots they have only to churn out news which are generally incorrect in perspectives and vision, he said. Referring to the last elections he said that all newspapers and channels were convinced that the NDA would thump back to power, with BJP with the single party majority, he said, the results are before everybody to see. The media thereafter never discussed why they misled people by such prediction. Similarly, the case of criticism of our RBI policies. “After the global economic slum down today we have found that our central bank is the wisest bank of all other central banks of other countries. Why media is not addressing this now?” he queried.

Dr Warren Mallor, the UNESCO and representative to India, who wields immense experience and propounded new concepts in the filed of mass communication, Mr Vinod Mehta, editor-in-chief of Outlook and a member of the Editor’s Guild of India and senior journalist of The Week magazine Mr Sachichidananda Murthy were the Guests of Honour.

On-campus training by the SOJNMS will now onwards be a regular feature at IGNOU Headquarters, as the school aims at leveraging opportunities of a slew of new media into the mass communication studies. The programmes are the first efforts of the school to teach masters programmes in face-to-face mode. Explaining the courseware SOJNMS director Dr Shanbhu Nath Singh said that the curriculum has been drawn from a combination of UNESCO guidelines and world leaders’ inputs about journalism and new news media, which thus is a benchmark of studies in the field. As such, it is the first time any university is addressing the issues dogging the fields of journalism and mass communication world for decades. For newsmen and the television crew these coursewares are likely to be a trusted materials for gathering of knowledge and implanting it in real life functioning.

Technical competencies alone will not suffice. There has to be intellectuial competency. Students must get an over view of the worldwide idealism, philosophy and intecctual maturity before practicing journalism. Stressing this point, veteran journalist Mr Vinod Mehta said, “You are entering in a golden time of Indian journalism. Two things have strongly emerged for journalists, high salaries and glamour attached to the job. Even 10 years back there was no money was there. Mothers won’t allow their daughters choose journalists as life partners.”

Today’s journalist must learn hard way the art of writing and communicating. He said, “The new trend is the electronic media. It is a difficult world, not intellectually, but by the yardstick of stamina. They have to wait for hours to get a sound bite form a political leader, and eventually that would be a no comment. In print journalism, though the rule of professional work is no difference, you will have to get through to the truth. One way of getting to the truth is to be grounded well in the profession. There are rules, which you have to learn. There is no short cut to it.”

He denounced the Sting Journalism as Lazy Journalism. One danger that larks about a journalist is his tendencies to become an idealist. That dissipates with time. “But idealism is good, as long as you remain a journalist. Don’t become a cynic or a fisters. You have to be pragmatic, must have the zeal to change the face of this world. That way you excel always. Don’t lose the burning desire for changing the things and bring the difference,” was his advise to the students.

UNESCO representative to India, Dr Warren Mallor, a retired academic, referred to Marshal McLuhan’s theory of communication to say that the concept of Global Village has been entirely changed today with the advent of Internet. “The concept Global Village was in fact is now narrowly focussed. Things changed very rapidly. Ruper Murdoch himself was questioning the changes. There are opportunities in the worlds of delivery in the fundamental premises of journalism, in which, factually presented objects, authenticated information have to be disseminated.” Dr Mallor promise many more programmes of the UNESCO to IGNOU.

Presiding over the function, Vice Chancellor Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai said, “The SOJNMS is going to be a flagship school of IGNOU to harness media, for education, capacity building for effective use of media for education and development. We have all imaginable media inputs in your programmes, radio, TV, satellite, mobile and internet. This univ is a success story of democratisation of education, training models for capacity building.”

In her welcome address earlier, PVC incharge of the school, Dr Latha Pillai said, the school has been envisioned to be setting new benchmarks in JMC. The school is settinmg new trends and leveraging the institutional linkage to create industry-academic fusion at media studies.”

September 2, 2009

Experts laud 'Hinglish',Indian themes in English Writing .

New Delhi:Think of a Shakespeare emerging from Hinglish world of art. Is it unlikely? Or a diasporic language confluenced into a coined term, say, HindostanEnglish, or the like?

The language and expression thundered as dogging points of reference at the Second International Conference on ‘Contemporary Indian Writers in English : Assimilation and Denial’ organised at India International Centre (IIC) on January 19-20 last, by the School of Humanities of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), jointly with the IIC.
Indian Writers in English (IWE) were broadly discussed in six brainstorming sessions on varied sub-themes -- narratives of the nation (India), rebellious resolutions, poetics, publishing blues -- touching an IWE’s writing life.

Octogenarian doyen of Indian Classical Dance, Art and Architecture Kapila Vatsayan set the tone for the conference by raising a core question, “What exactly is meant to be contemporary?” She flayed the mindset of elite Indians tuned by Macaulay in mid-thirties (1935). “We should get our perspectives right”, she stressed lamenting, “we are still belonging to colonial mindset that Indian culture is subordinate to English. You stressed ‘Assimilation’. It’s assimilation of what and of which cultures? You have to rethink wherefrom to begin. Is it from Raja Rao, Salman Rushdie, Kamala Markandaya, Amitabh Ghosh, where? Mulk Raj Anand’s ‘Coolie’ is not at all a prodigal son’s return to native land. It is an existential expression of modernity.”

Columnist Gurcharan Das treaded a rebellious track askinf for more space for Hindi-mixed English. Sadly, Oxford University Press editors, Gatenby and Hornby, were not present or they might have tinkered with columnist Gurcucharan Das’ caustic remark about chaste English in the sessions, albeit with a pinch of salt. Terming chaste English as “colonial”, he said, “Common Indians don’t speak shuddh Hindi either, because they don’t find their life reflected in it, but feel happy in mixing up English words for expressions in their day to day life. This may not be acceptable tochaste English speakers, though a language evolves itself always. Today 28% Indians learn English. By 2020-25, the percentage will go up to 50, maybe.” Targeting the English speaking world in India, Gurucharan Das said, “I am looking forward to a Hinglish producing a Shakespeare just as post-Anglo-Saxon Latin Europe did one for England. New Hinglish may naturally produce new Kalidasas”.

Before him, former Sahitya Akademi Secretary Tamil poet Dr K. Sachchidanandan charmed the audience with his innumerable citations languages mixing with one another in novels by Indian writers, as much as, it did by IWE.

References to Kamala Markandaya were made avidly in the conference as American University Professor Charles Larson, in his key note address, explained how fluid, polished she wrote while incorporating Indian life and settings as her sub-themes in her novels. Professor Larson detailed conflicts she withstood while writing in England and subsequent successes culminating numerous accolades including best novel award for her ‘Nectar in a Sieve’ by the American Library Association in 1955. Markandaya’s daughter Kim Oliver was present all through the sessions awed and inspired by references to her mother.

What after all is colonial about English or for that matter of any language? - was the war cry from Hindi poet Stephanian English speaker Ashok Vajpai and Vajpai readily questioned Gurcharan Das’ and Vatsayan’s queries about contemporanity and historicity thereof.

That being the backdrop of the seminar, speakers after speakers goaded imagination of the audience with exuberance and eloquence even when discordant notes were not unexpected.

The speakers in the session chaired by senior Delhi University Professor of English Malashri Lal indeed sounded original verve in English linguistics, which is evolving in the subcontinent. IWE offers astute critics even among the creators and often ropes other Indian languages in use in their writings. Central issues of the conference even strayed with various gender-specific references to denote Indianness, but stuck to the main goal – to gain awareness among students about qualitative scope in IWE.

September 1, 2009

Gillard lauds IGNOU-QUT collaboration for 3 Programmes .

New Delhi:Australian Deputy Prime Minister Ms Julia Gillard today launched three newage ICT-centric academic programmes of IGNOU developed in collaboration with the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). “It is a very special launch as IGNOU is the world’s largest university and it is an excellent opportunity for Australia and India together to demonstrate quality education for today’s students and also those of tomorrow. Australia shares India’s interest in the world of learning.”

In reply of the question from former Times of India Resident Editor Mr Ramindar Singh about the steps her Government might have taken to protect India students from ethnic backlash in Australia, Ms Gillard mentioned in details that a new rule of registration of students has been put in place, to watch students’ stay in the country. She said that all protective steps have been taken to register the students intake and protect them from any inconvenience situations.

According to the partnership, the students will take admission in IGNOU for courses developed in collaboration with the QUT. After completion of the parts of education at IGNOU, the rest of the course will be completed at QUT. The students will get dual degrees one each from both the universities. The collaboration is broadly being viewed as a yardstick of excellence and equity. Stressing this, QUT Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof Arun Sharma said that the collaboration of three newage programmes is likely to be a testimony of future collaborations between the two universities. “In this collaborationwe shall combine excellence and scale. How do you scale ande excel in the projects is something we will find out and that will be the testimony of the future endeavours, “ said Prf Sharma.

For quality education and perfect teaching-learnings processes, India needs millions of teachers, Emphasising this, Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai said, “India today needs about 22 lakhs additional teachers for the primary section alone in view of the implementation of the recently passed Right to Education Bill. They must be well trained themselves first before taking up teaching at primary levels. The teaching-learning process can be successful only if the teachers are trained enough. The collaboration will look into this area.”

IGNOU has introduced the Research and Training Assistantship programmes since 2007. About 100 Research and Training Assistants (RTAs) are pursuing research in various disciplines while teaching at IGNOU. These RTAs, after clearing their Ph.Ds, will become trained teachers. This is just an augury. A few hundreds of teachers will emerge this way and the collaborations are being viewed as a process to create more and more trained teachers in respective fields. The Dual Degree of the doctoral programme at the QUT is a solid step towards that goal. This also responds well to the Millennium Goals for development in India.

Students’ safety in a land of studies, therefore, comes natural to the mind of concerned people. Thanking the Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Prof Pillai said that the new registration rule initiated by the Australian government is likely to help greatly. It is because a slew of cutting edge programmes in the disciplines of Built-in Environment and Engineering, Creative writing, Education, Health, information Technology, Journalism, Life Science, Management, Media, Communication and Law are being developed under this collaboration.

According to Prof Sharma, there are about 60,000 students admitted in Australian universities as on date. At QUT the number is about 500. “But the students at QUT are pursuing their research topics and are well safe in every aspect of life. They are overwhelmingly enjoying their stay in Australia,” he said in answers to mediapersons.

August 31, 2009

Julia Gillard launches IGNOU-QUT collaboration initiatives .

New Delhi:Australian Deputy Prime Minister Ms Julia Gillard MP today launched three newage programmes developed under collaboration of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai presided over the launch ceremony, which was covered live to all IGNOU Regional Centres in the country. The Regional Directors were present to watch the live coverage of the ceremony.
Entire faculty and staff of IGNOU were present in the launch.

The QUT was represented by Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Commercialisation) Professor Arun Sharma, an eminent ICT scientist of Australia who co-founded National ICT Australia Limited (NICTA). NICTA is well-known to be Australia’s national centre of excellence. Prof Sharma is also the President of the Australia India Business Council (Queensland Chapter).

The programmes are : ICT-Enabled Diploma in Primary Education (DPE), Master of Intellectual Property Law (MIPL) and Doctoral Programme for Research and Training Assistants (RTAs).

The ICT-Enabled DPE programme is aimed to train teachers of primary education to enhance quality of teaching at the grassroots level in a country. Teachers at schools must be trained well to teach at primary stage of education as that alone can build the fundamentals of children. The programme has a molecular approach. It has four objectives : (i) To develop knowledge and understanding Primary School Curriculum, (ii) to develop skills in transacting the prescribed curriculum effectively, (iii) to acquaint the participants with factors affecting child psyche, individual differences in a classroom, learning and motivation processes etc., and (iv) to appreciate the role of teacher in socio-cultural milieu of a society. The programme therefore targets the untrained and undertrained teachers. Since the programme is delivered through information and communication technologies (ICTs), the outreach among the target group can be far and wide. At present both IGNOU and QUT are considering how the DPE can be made ICT-enabled for greater international outreach.

The MIPL is a new specialist Dual Degree Masters Programme in Intellectual Property Law offered exclusively Online and jointly by IGNOU and QUT. It is meant for professionals cutting across disciplines exclusively. The MIPL is open to all Graduates. The law graduates get an option to study a semester in the QUT, Australia provided they clear the English language test prescribed by the QUT. On clearance of the semester and the duration of the MIPL programme, the law graduates will get Dual Degrees –from the QUT and the IGNOU. The two-year degree course also include papers in International and comparative intellectual property laws, Patents, Copyright and Design laws.

Doctoral Programme for the RTAs is an innovative approach to research and development. It is IGNOU’s novel move launched in 2007 to enhance quality of research in general and capabilities of research scholars in all disciplines. It is also the brainchild of IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. Under the IGNOU-QUT collaborative programme, area of studies are : Built-in Environment and Engineering, Creative Writing, Education, Health, Information Technology, Journalism, Life Science, Management, Media, Communication and Law. The selected candidates will work under the joint supervision of IGNOU and QUT. The admitted students will be required to complete the initial period in IGNOU and then will move to the QUT to complete their theses. The programme is launched by the IGNOU’s Research Unit, in collaboration with the QUT, for the Dual Degree Ph.Ds.

Good response to the Dual degree programmes have been received at IGNOU headquarters.

August 4, 2009

IGNOU signs up with Rail Institute to groom new genre of skilled personnel

New Delhi : Indira Gandhi National Open University today (August 4) signed a broad perspective MoU with Institute of Rail Transport (IRT) to develop a gross framework of training and academic collaboration. The principal objectives are to develop high quality educative programmes of international standard in rail transport management.

IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai and Chairman of the Railway Board Mr SS Khurana participated in the function, which was attended by a host of members of the Railway Board and a number of top-notch officials of the ministry.

Lauding the IGNOU offer, the Railway Board Chairman Mr Kurana said, “IRT will benefit from the IGNOU expertise and make education more real and broadly recognised.”

The MoU was signed by Dr US Tolia, Registrar of IGNOU and Dr AP Ramanan, Executive Director of IRT. The MoU envisages that appropriate mechanisms will evolved for effective generation of skilled officials in management of the complex world of rail transport, relative application of ICTs, ports, containers, logistics management and many other associated training and education. A slew of academic programmes in various levels from short-term trainings to Certificate, Diploma, Bachelor’s, Master’s and Research programmes will be offered at all IRT study centres spread across the country along the railways with a view to democratising employment-oriented education and training.

The broad framework is likely to generate a good number of skilled handlers and experts in rail transport areas.

August 2, 2009

B.Ed (Special Education) from IGNOU

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), today, launched B.Ed (Special Education) in collaboration with Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) through Distance mode in the area of Hearing Impairment, Mental Retardation and Visual Impairment from July 2009 session.

This announcement was made by the Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU.
Duration of programme is two years. The applicants should have a Bachelor’s degree from any UGC recognized University and have a minimum of 2 years experience in a special school environment in any disability area after his/her graduation. Weightage will be given to the candidates fulfilling any one of the following conditions: be a parent of a child with disability, be a person with disability, posses an RCI recognized Diploma in Special Education, have undergone bridge course of RCI or have completed RCI recognized foundation course.

Availability of Prospectus shall be from 1st August 2009 – 31st August 2009. The student handbook and prospectus can be obtained from regional centres, study centres and IGNOU main campus at Maidan Garhi by sending a Demand draft of Rs. 550/- drawn in favour of IGNOU payable at New Delhi or by paying Rs 500/- in cash at the respective sale counters.

Application form and prospectus can also be downloaded from IGNOU website: www.ignou.ac.in. Filled in application Form with all the requisite documents should reach on or before Aug 31, 2009 to National Centre for Disability Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University G-Block, Academic Complex, Hall No. 7, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068.E-Mail: n.c.d.s.2008@gmail.com, hemlata@ignou.ac.in, skprasad@ignou.ac.in, Ph no. 011-29531574, 29535124.

24th July, 2009

Launched Certificate Programme in Urdu

Janab Salman Khurshid, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Corporate & Minority Affairs (Independent Charge), Govt. of India today launched Certificate Programme in Urdu of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

IGNOU has taken a major initiative of promoting Urdu both at the national and international levels. The Urdu programme which will be shortly inducted in the school are Certificate, Diploma, B.A. elective Major and M.Phil/Ph.D.

As far as the Certificate Programme in Urdu is concerned, it has a unique course structure ever taught in any university, college or school in India . This programme is meant for those Urdu and Hindi speakers who want to know how to read, write and correctly speak Urdu language. It deals with listening, speaking, reading, writing and understanding skills in Urdu and facilitates communicative skills in the language as well. The certificate course also inducts students in literature appreciation.

This Programme is a good option for media persons, legal practicioners , bureaucrats, diplomats etc for their profession’s needs. In addition researchers who are doing research on medieval India, freedom struggle and allied fields will be facilitated by the programme for their research.This programme will also bridge the gap between Urdu and Hindi and provide the basis to develop a link language among SAARC countries or the countries of the Sub-Continent.

The Urdu programme starting from certificate to diploma, Bachelors and Master’s degree and further M.Phil and Ph.D Programme will help hither-to unreached sections of students in Madarsahs to bring them to the folds of tertiary and higher level education. A large number of drop outs are also those to whom Urdu is non-available as a medium of formal education.

This programme in Urdu is on offer from July 2009 followed by launch of Diploma and B.A. Electives for a major in Bachelor’s degree programme in 2010 &2011. Recently M.Phil / Ph.D. programme has also been approved by the Academic Council of the university. IGNOU also has a special slot for Urdu Programme on its Gyan Darshan Channel.

The courses envisaged for Certificate, Diploma and Degree programmes are both language and literature oriented and at the same time highly innovative, need-based and also application oriented . Some of the courses worth mentioning are : Women in Urdu Literature, Diasporic Urdu Literature, Elements of Urdu Structure, Socio-Cultural Forms of Urdu, Oral tradition of Urdu literature, Stylistics, Sociology of Literature. Some of the courses that need a special mention are Script Writing, Feature Writing, Publishing, Editing and Proof Reading, Principles of Language Teaching, Translation etc.

July 20, 2009

IGNOU launches new genre of programme in MBA studies

New Delhi : Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) here today (Monday) launched a new domain in management studies, ‘MBA -- Management Practices’ in collaboration with Bharti Learning Systems Limited (BLS). This MBA programme will ensure specialisation in six professional areas which are : Telecommunication, Sales & Marketing, Human Resources, Insurance, Retail and Banking. The programme is an outcome of an MoU signed in March 2009 by IGNOU and BLS for five years, renewable under certain terms laid down by IGNOU.

The programme targets both new age students and employed professionals, who aspire to boost their career prospects by acquiring an MBA degree that will train them in cutting-edge vocational skills. The programme meets the market demand.

The entry point is Graduation, with 10+2+3 years and above, from a UGC recognised University. In the four-semester schedule, the programme ensures Certificate, Diploma, PG Diploma to a student after completion of the first three semesters, respectively, before the fourth which will entail the MBA -- Management Practices degree.

Addressing a gathering of scribes at IGNOU’s new City Centre on the Jay Singh Road, Vice Chancellor Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai stressed the need of such programmes which would eventually build up skill levels of learners and those already employed.

He said, “This collaboration is one of the recent Public-Private Participation initiatives of IGNOU wherein the technological capabilities and domain knowledge in telecommunications of Bharti Learning systems and the academic ODL scaling-up capabilities of IGNOU are combined.”

Explaining the concept, Professor Pillai said that Indians are well known for their managerial and technical skills worldover. However, according to a recent survey of International Labour Organisation (ILO), the level of skills of the managers needs to be honed up further as these are still found far below than that in countries like South Korea, USA, Japan and others. “We have the largest number of youth population in the entire world. If we can educate and train them into various skills, the results will only be very good. That will eventually contribute to the national growth of the GDP. Such programmes are demand of the day, are more realistic than what the conventional MBAs ensure and are beneficial to a nation’s economy. IGNOU, which took initiatives to uphold this concept of skill-based specialisation programmes, has already caused a paradigm shift in education today,” Professor Pillai added.

A Joint Co-ordination Committee (JCC) has been formed to decide on the curriculum, course content, amount of fee, supervision and monitoring of and further development in the curriculum and take other necessary decisions. The JCC will function under the chairmanship of IGNOU Vice Chancellor and comprise four members, two each from IGNOU and BLS. Representatives of a BLS associate company, named Centum Learning Limited, will become the nominees of the BLS.

The programme will facilitate learning at own pace through multimedia CDs and other electronic modes.

IGNOU will also hold advisory and expert committee meetings, develop the curriculum through its technical experts, write self-instructional materials, supply all relevant data, issue guidelines, admit students and award degrees, says the MoU.

BLS also will receive applications for admission and be responsible for operational formalities of running of the programme right from the application stage to delivery of completion, under approval and guidance of IGNOU.

Therefore, the copyright of MBA -- Management Practices programme will be jointly held by IGNOU and BLS.

Elaborating the scheme of the latest genre of MBA teaching and its pedagogy, BLS CEO & Executive Director, Mr Sanjeev Duggal, said, "Graduates in today’s economic environment realize the need to become efficient and enhance their employability skills more than ever before. This programme with several unique features like completely flexible learning schedules, digitized learning content with a strong sectoral focus in areas like Telecom, Insurance, Banking and Finance, Retail, would undoubtedly help them gain competitive advantage over their peers.”

According to the plan, BLS has decided to offer the programme through Centum Learning centres spread across 71 cities in the country.

19th July, 2009

IGNOU to co-host ICDL-2010

Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, VC, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has called upon all distance learners’ community and institutions viz. State Open Universities, Distance Education Institutions (DEIs/CCIs) to come forward and contribute on the theme of the forth coming International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) .

IGNOU has agreed to be the partner with the organizer TERI and co-host the “International Conference on Digital Libraries” and organize its event – “Tutorials & Workshop”. The Third International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) is being organized during 23-26 February 2010 which is also a Silver Jubilee year of IGNOU establishment. The theme of the Conference is “Shaping the Information Paradigm”.

Prof. Pillai, the Co-Chairperson of the Conference. He announced that certain number of participants shall be nominated by IGNOU in the Conference as delegates of ODL system without registration fees.

IGNOU partnership in organising ICDL 2010 shall provide opportunity to extend global best practices of the theme to strengthen its arena of ICT, web based methodologies, and digitalisation for providing seamless access to all, including hitherto un-reached by the development of a national resource centre as a proactive role model for high quality and learner-centric open and distance learning system and this shall increase presence and impact in international ODL institutions

Special conference sessions and tutorials shall be devoted on the theme related aspects to the technologies applicable in open and distance education system. Apart from other covered aspects, this conference has special focus on web-based methodologies in teaching and learning, academic programmes, information services, multi-media content, m-learning, open archive initiatives & open educational resources, e-learning & e-resource management, and virtual support to distance learners.

Digital Libraries are emerging as a crucial component of global information infrastructure and bring the physical library and information resources to the users in digital form. These adapt the latest ICT tools and techniques to promote an organization structure that encourage communication between researchers across nations to transcend disciplinary boundaries.

Persons interested to participate in this International Conference may contact

ICDL2010 Conference Secretariat, IHC Complex, Lodhi Road, N Delhi.

16th July, 2009

IGNOU LAUNCHES JOINT EXECUTIVE MBA

Today Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in collaboration with U21Global, Singapore launched a Joint Postgraduate program in IT Management for July 2009 session. IGNOU and U21Global invite applications for a Joint Postgraduate Program in IT Management leading to Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Information Technology from IGNOU and an Executive Certificate in Global Information Technology Management from U21Global. The Program is for a duration of 18 months; commencing on 7th September 2009. U21Global will conduct the Program online, for the first 12 months; leading to an Executive Certificate in Global Information Technology Management. This will be followed by a 6 months Program from IGNOU through distance education mode leading to an Executive MBA in Information Technology Management.

The details of the Program can be obtained from: www.u21global.edu.sg/ignou or www.ignou.ac.in

Eligibility for Admission is Bachelor’s Degree in IT related area + 2 years’ Supervisory/ Managerial/ Professional experience in IT field. Non-graduates with 6 years’ Supervisory/ Managerial/ Professional experience in IT-related field are eligible to apply. Candidates who have completed 10+2 or its equivalent qualification may be treated as non-graduates. There is no age bar for the Programs. Candidates can log on to the website and fill up the application form and e-mail it to sk@u21global.edu.sg. He/she will receive an application number after successful submission of the form.

Last date for online submission of application form & application fee payment is 10th August 2009. Intimation about admission shall be provided on 20th August 2009. Last date for fee submission is 30th August 2009

Program Brochure and application form for the Program, can be downloaded from the website:www.u21global.edu.sg/ignou or www.ignou.ac.in. The application should be filled and sent via e-mail only by the candidate. The application fee for the Program is US Dollar 20 or Rs.1000/- .For further enquiries, one can contact Ms Smriti Kapoor at: sk@u21global.edu.sg or contact +91 11 41519971 or +91 9718278248, Prof. Madhulika Kaushik, course coordinator, School of Management studies, IGNOU, 91-11-29532073, 29534905

U21Global is a premier graduate school backed by 17 world-class universities: Fudan University, Korea University, Lund University, National University of Singapore, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tecnológico De Monterrey, University College Dublin, University of Birmingham, University of Delhi, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, University of Hong Kong, University of Melbourne, University of Nottingham, University of Queensland, University of Virginia, Waseda University

15th July, 2009

Last dates for admission to Master of Arts in Gender and Developments Studies [MA(GD)] extended Till July 31, 2009

This Masters Programme would be taught in the face-to-face mode through classroom teaching. After successful completion of the first year courses, a learner has an exit option and would earn a Postgraduate Diploma in Gender and Development Studies.

The programme is likely to be of interest to academics and researchers; trainers, facilitators, supervisors; staff of organizations working in the area of gender and development; government personnel; personnel working in banks/ financial institutions

The Master’s/ Postgraduate Diploma programmes would make an excellent foundation for analyzing, critically assessing existing development interventions and promoting gender-sensitive/gender-based research and action. The strong focus envisaged on positive affirmative action would be of considerable significance.

For further details check out the Prospectus on the IGNOU website. Admissions are open till July 31, 2009. Please contact us at sogds@ignou.ac.in or telephone at 29532964.

15th July, 2009

Last dates for admission to Translation programmes extended

New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has extended the last date for submission of filled-in application forms for admission to PG Certificate in Bangla-Hindi Translation (PGCBHT) and PG Certificate in Malayalam-Hindi Translation (PGCMHT) up to 31 July 2009 for admission to the July Session.

Earlier, the last date for filled-in application forms was July 15. With this extension, no Late Fee will be required to pay for applying for admission to these programmes, if the applicants submit their filled-in application forms within July 31st.

14th July, 2009

IGNOU enters into Book Publishing Programme

To provide an opportunity for self employment to aspiring and practicing publishing professionals, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the biggest textbook publisher in Asia has on offer a PG Diploma in Book Publishing.

Only a Graduation Degree, good knowledge of English and a working knowledge of word processing is required to take admission to this course. The duration of course is one year. However it can be completed in a maximum period of four years.

The aim of this programme is skill- upgradation and skill acquisition in the various aspects of publishing. Its objective is also to training aspiring publishing professionals in marketable skills in the various areas of publishing, including specialized editing, copyediting and proofreading online, marketing, distribution, sales etc.

The uniqueness of the programme lies in the fact that IGNOU will provide teaching material in several modes --print, audio and video, teleconferencing, face-to-face interaction-- and attachment to a publishing house where a student will get a chance to work and learn on the job.

IGNOU has tied up with Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) and the trainees would get a Joint Certificate from both IGNOU and FIP after completion of programme. The trainee would also get a small stipend on completion of the training.

This programme has eight courses: Introduction to Publishing and its Legal Aspects, Editing and Pre-press, Production and Emerging Technologies, Marketing Promotion and Distribution of Books, Editing Books for Children, Editing Scientific Technical and Medical Books, Editing Textbooks, Internship.

The Common Prospectus can be obtained from Registrar, Student Registration Division. IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi-110068 and also from all Regional Centers of IGNOU on cash payment of Rs 100/- and by post Rs.150/- in the form of Demand Draft in favour of IGNOU payable at the city concerned.

Application form can also be downloaded from IGNOU website www.ignou.ac.in and submitted along with DD for Rs 100/- in addition to programme fee.

Last date for submission of filled application form for the session 2009 at the concerned Regional center is 15th July’2009.

Any filled in application form submitted beyond the last date shall be entertained for Jan/July 2010 cycle.

Interested student can contact Prof. Sunaina Kumar e-mail-sunainak@ignou.ac.in or 29533657,29572785,9873311723.

Presently the Programme is on offer at the following places:

Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Cochin, Cuttak, Delhi 1, Delhi2, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kottayam, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna, Pune

Depending on demand, IGNOU may add more centres.

12th July, 2009

Professor Asha S. Kanwar gets ICDE Award

Professor Asha S. Kanwar, Former Pro- Vice Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was conferred the individual Prize of Excellence by the International Council of Distance Education (ICDE) at Maastricht, Netherlands.

The individual Prize of Excellence is awarded to individuals who have shown great leadership and excellence in the work of an educational association of open distance and virtual learning at national, regional or global level over the last 5-10 years and moved the international agenda of Open & Distance Learning ODL cooperation forward in a decisive manner.

Prof. Asha S. Kanwar, is Vice-President, Commonwealth of Learning, Canada.

Professor Kanwar, a citizen of India, has a distinguished academic background from India, the UK and the USA. Her sixty publications include ten books on Open and Distance Learning, Gender and Literature. She began her outstanding career in ODL when she joined the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in 1988 where she held various academic positions: Professor, Director of the School of Humanities and Pro Vice-Chancellor (the first woman appointed to this position). From IGNOU she took up a joint UNESCO- Commonwealth of Learning (COL) post at UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Education in Africa (BREDA) in Senegal. In 2003, she moved to COL’s headquarters in Vancouver, Canada. She was in 2006 appointed Vice-President of COL and took on the additional responsibilities of Programme Director in 2007.

There are many examples of innovation and moving ODL into the future in Professor Kanwar’s career. In IGNOU she contributed to the development of new policies and systems and the transformation of the gender balance of committees. At BREDA she advocated the use of ODL in teacher education and all levels of education and created a resource centre for ODL. At COL she has led innovations in quality assurance and technology. In the area of technology she has directed the development of low-cost technology options for the developing world.

Within the international community of ODL she has contributed to the development of national policies for ODL in many countries integrating ODL in the national educational policies. She has influenced ODL institutions in developing countries to focus on a culture of quality. She has led to expand its focus beyond ODL for education and lifelong learning to embrace global development goals in poverty reduction, health and community development. Professor Asha S. Kanwar is a tireless advocate for gender considerations in ODL.

11th July, 2009

IGNOU (ACIIL) inks MOU with IBM India to Reinvent and Reform the ICT Education in the country

Another Milestone for Academia-Industry Collaborative Framework, for skills development in Open Source and Open Standard

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), The Advanced center for Informatics & Innovative Learning (ACIIL) and IBM India today signed an MOU at Banglore that would reinvent IT education in the country. The collaboration, co-operation and joint working of IBM, with IGNOU, will bridge the gap that existed till now on Education, Skills & National Development.

As a part of the MOU, IGNOU and IBM India would partner to skill students on the IT standards in the emerging verticals like healthcare, financial services and retail that have a significant growth potential, in addition to the skills demand of Open Source software and Open Standards, with live projects. The three programs that will be offered in the first phase under this MOU would include:

1. A Certificate in Open Source Software

2. Diploma in Open Source Software & Industry Vertical Domain Open Standards and

3. Advanced Diploma in Industry Vertical Domain Open Standards (Healthcare/ Retail/ Insurance).

The Innovation Centre for Open Standards (iCos), an online platform, will be the underlying framework for the engagement between IBM and IGNOU for the execution of the courses. The IBM iCos platform links students' project based learning with IT industry and mentors. This will be seamlessly integrated to IGNOU’s in house developed Unified Learning Platform in due course. This effort will fill up the Finishing School efforts of the IT Industry today, enabling the DAY One deployment. The students will immensely benefit from the flexibility of learning at their own pace, anytime, anywhere, anyhow, and make the students future-ready.

Speaking at the event, Prof. Srivathsan, Pro Vice Chancellor of IGNOU stated, “The MoU aptly fits into IGNOU’s vision of democratizing the education and offering quality education to all. It opens up the modernization of IT and Computer Science education as well as their applications in different verticals. Students stand to benefit immensely from this initiative as it provides them a platform to help them transition from academia to industry while they are still on campus. As a globally leading technology corporation, IBM will help bring in the right industry expertise to develop a curriculum that meets the evolving needs of the industry, and also provide an innovative e-learning platform to deliver this much needed program.”

IBM has a long-standing commitment to furthering education, including its IBM Academic Initiative, an innovative program offering a wide range of technology education benefits from free to fee that can scale to meet the goals of most colleges and universities. IBM will work with universities and colleges -- that support Open Standards and seek to use Open Source and IBM technologies for teaching purposes -- both directly and virtually via the Web. Launched in 2006, the IBM Training for Systems offers a comprehensive portfolio of technical training and education services designed for individuals, companies, and public organizations to acquire, maintain, and optimize their IT skills. IBM Training for Systems offer more than 1,000 courses every year, including both our instructor-led classroom training and e-learning options.

Shailesh Agarwal, Vice President – Sales Programs, Systems and Technology Group, India/SA said, “This MoU with IGNOU goes on to show our commitment towards building a strong industry-academia relationship. There has never been a better opportunity to ensure that we are arming our students with industry relevant smart skills for jobs of the future. Until now, some of the most important domain skills could only be taught using standard case studies and insights from industry experts. Initiatives like this is one way that universities can help students to learn by marrying traditional curriculum with domain specific course material that will help build new skills and make the students future-ready.’

IGNOU’s Unified Learning model which is being launched shortly, will support all learning models such as face to face, on-line, in-line, print based, self learning, web-based and thus match with the flexibility of learning at one’s own pace, anywhere, anytime, anyhow. The continuous assessment will enable skills development, to match with the emerging global demands of industrial workforce.

About IGNOU

For more information about IGNOU, visit http://www.ignou.ac.in/

About IBM

For more information about IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com

For further information, please contact:

Ravi Mohan

CPRO, IGNOU

Ph: 29532321, 29572515 (office)

E-mail: ignoucpro@gmail.com; cpro@indiatimes.com

Sowmya Ramachandran

IBM Corporate Communications

Ph: 9845181220

E-mail: soramach@in.ibm.com

Bidisha Thapa

Vox PR

E-mail: bidishat@voxpr.co.in

Mobile: +91 9873951565

10th July, 2009

LAUNCH OF ONLINE LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME BY MOS MHRD

Smt. D. Purandeswari, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for HRD today launched online “Leadership Programme on Nutrition Security and Sustainable Development” and its website at the IGNOU campus.

Prof. M.S.Swaminathan, Honorary Chair, Chair for Sustainable Development, IGNOU and Prof. Rajasekharan Pillai ,VC IGNOU presided over the function. Ms. Kerry Pelzman, Acting Mission Director, USAID, Dr. Rajiv Tandon, Coordinator, Coalition for Sustainable Nutrition Security in India, Prof. Latha Pillai, Pro-VC IGNOU and Dr. M.K. Salooja, School of Agriculture, IGNOU addressed the gathering.

This Nutrition Security programme can be completed in a minimum period of one month and maximum six months. It is intended to sensitize and guide policy and programme leaders to rely more on evidence based programming for achieving nutrition security and sustainable development.

This programme is open to candidates who are graduates or equivalent in any discipline from any recognized University. There is a special focus on candidates working in the health and nutrition sector, including policy makers and programme implementers, civil society and public health nutrition professionals.

The Leadership Course on Mutrition Security and Sustainable Development programme shall be available online on SAVE (Sustainable Action and Virtual Education) platform. It is a complete virtual learning environment suite covering all activities from registration to certification. The following features shall be available to the registered students:

Admission will be available throughout the year. There will be four cycles in an academic year i.e. February, May, August, and November. The two month period between each of the two cycles will be used for the advertising the course and registration of the students for the next cycle. The registration form will be available online at www.ignou.ac.in/save.

Once registered, learners will have access to a personalized learning space. This includes self-instructional material, related audio/video, slides and self-check exercises, accessible on one platform.

IGNOU offers web-based counseling. The counselors have experience in public health, nutrition and other related disciplines.

24X7 learner supports: Synchronous modes of interaction will be used to provide timely support to learners.

Online project platform: Templates shall be made available for synopsis submission, project uploading and evaluation. Viva voce will be conducted through a web-based video conferencing tool.

Online term-end examination: Online Examination will be conducted in specified centers.

The fee for the programme is Rs 500/-.

The Leadership Programme on Nutrition Security and Sustainable Development is comprised of four credits. One credit equals 30 hours of study by the student. The requisite for completing the programme is 120 hours of study.

The programme is of one month duration and consists of four blocks. The fourth block refers to project work based on practical exercises and case studies/filed visits. In order to be eligible for the award of the certificate, a student has to complete the following four blocks.

· Block 1: Sustainable Development and Nutrition Security

· Block 2: Interventions to Reduce Under nutrition in Infant and young Children

· Block 3: Interventions to Reduce Under nutrition in Girls and Women

· Block 4: Project Work

The special features of this programme is its conceptualization and development in Collaboration with the Coalition for Sustainable Nutrition Security in India. The Coalition, chaired by Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, is a group of public and private sector leaders, NGOs, Media and Academia who have united in an effort to improve nutrition security, ensuring that every Indian has access to a balanced diet, safe drinking water, environmental hygiene, sanitation, primary health care. The Coalition has developed and committed itself to a Leadership Agenda for Action.

The Leadership Agenda for Action highlights the urgent need to address high levels of malnutrition in India. It has developed recommendations for priority actions based on evidence and programming experience and helps build awareness, capacity and commitment among policy and programme leaders for implementation of the recommendations.

The programme is designed based on the Leadership Agenda for Action. The contributors to this Nutrition Security programme includes: Prof. M.S.Swaminathan, task force members, special reviewers, consultants and the Coalition Secretariat who all greatly contributed to its development.

7th July, 2009

Admissions to Master of Arts in Gender and Development Studies [M.A.(GD)]

For further details check out the Common Prospectus on the IGNOU website. Admissions are open till July 15, 2009. Please contact us at sogds@ignou.ac.in or telephone at 29532964

5th July 2009

PGDAC Application form submission date extended

Indira Gandhi National Open University(IGNOU) has extended the date of submission of Application Form for the Post Graduate Diploma in Analytical Chemistry (PGDAC) Programme from 30th June,2009 to 30th July, 2009.

The eligibility condition is also revised as “Science Graduates (B.Sc., B.Pharma, Chemical Engineering etc.) with Chemistry as one of the subjects”.

July 4, 2009

Purandeswari launches 100 IGNOU Community Colleges

New Delhi : Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Smt D Purandeswari, yesterday (July 4, 2009 Saturday) at the plenary hall of Vigyan Bhavan, launched 100 Community Colleges
of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for starting the Associate Degree programmes for disadvantaged people of the country. The colleges will start functioning from the current session (July) of IGNOU.

Addressing a chock-a-block audience at the Hall, the minister said, “The concept is foreign with its epicenter in the USA. It does not address development alone, it also ensures continued growth and that is the requirement of India today.”

Smt Purandeswari, who was the chief guest of the launch ceremony, congratulated IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai and his team of faculty members for starting “such an innovative movement of education for development”.

Explaining the acceptability of the Community Colleges in the country, the minister said, “Several groups advocated for Community Colleges, for example, parents, students communities, teaching communities, industrial and business forums, and social scientists. The obvious response has to be evolution and strengthening the concept of Community Colleges. The movement is a major force in the USA, where it is known as Junior Colleges. In countries like USA and Canada, where importance of these colleges are immense, the practice has been that of the international standard in programme formulations and enjoys global care.” The disadvantaged students, who are willing to develop their career through educational empowerment, and improve livelihood, will be mostly gained by the Associate Degree, she added.

The beneficiaries of the Community Colleges will be the schoolchildren, she stressed, who will be allowed to go for full-time, part-time or optional approaches to develop themselves. They will take education at their pace, options will have to be kept open always. Thirtynine Regional Centres of IGNOU will monitor these colleges, conduct exams, evaluate their growth and progress on day to day basis, “ensuring vertical mobility of the students in restrictive credit transfer system. The National Knowledge Commission also highly lauded the IGNOU Community College movement.” It is greatly hoped that the underprivileged and deprived will get an opportunity to develop themselves, she added.

Professor MS Swaminathan, Rajya Sabha member and the father of Indian Green Revolution, delivered the key note address. Addressing the audience, which listened to him with rapt attention, he dwelt upon the innovative movement started by the IGNOU, and said that the Community Colleges should not be looked at as an alternative education system but as a complementary to the existing system. It is only to help those who dropped out of the system.

Touching upon the environment protection, Professor Swaminathan said that the students learning in these Community Colleges should be taught at the very place they are living and working and not outside it, as that would bring more nature-friendliness in their education and training. If the community college learners learn in an environment natural to them they would be more into protection of the Nature, which is the call of the day.

The Community Colleges must stress the basic skills of the learners, and develop on them. For initiating them into skills development and other trainings will make them more employable. Referring to the first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision of education, Professor Swaminathan stressed that education has to be inclusive, it must take all communities into consideration and if that is done, “we can call it proper development”.

For all that, Prof Swaminathan said, that there should be widespread learning mechanism, environment enough to create and quantify education, a proper legislation such as the oncoming Right to Education Bill 2009, and perfect need-based coordination.

In his address explaininjg the movement, Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai said, “The concept of Community Colleges was first made known to all in the country by former Prime Minister Late Rajiv Gandhi, who envisioned an inclusive education system in India. It is a grassroots movement targeting deprived students who could not get formal degrees for various socio-economic reasons and also for those who dropped out of the existing educational system. Our job is to educate them with input of quality education and training, build up their innate capacities and make them employable. They will be groomed in the very areas they are engaged to work for their livelihood.”

IGNOU had received 800 applications from various institutions for accreditation as its Community Colleges, of which only 100 institutions have been selected to run the Associate Degree programme in various disciplines. The selected institutes will be required to invest about Rs 15 to 30 crore each for development of the required infrastructure in the realm of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as computers, internet education facilities, mobile telephony, TV sets etc. They will also have to develop course materials in the areas they are willing to work.

The IGNOU will examine the course materials to ensure standard, accreditation, proper evaluation, value-addition to the course materials and monitor their functioning both pedagogical as well as administrative, before ensuring certification by Associate Degree. One thing is very clear, that the entire concept is aimed at social development through education and skill-based need-based training. The IGNOU will also ensure the successful students’ employment as the entire course materials will have to be created in collaboration with industries and corporate world. That improved employability will depend on how accurate would be the course materials and training thereon.

This is the first phase. There would be a second phase soon after evaluation of the initiatives taken in this first stage. About 500 Community Colleges are likely to be set up within this Plan.

The launch was also in celebration of the 100th Meeting of the Board of Management (BOM), the governing body of the IGNOU. The members of the BOM took a epochal decision, which is another first of its kind in the realm of education, to recognize and promote Peace Studies as a mainstream curriculum. It is a concept which has wide social ramifications in today’s violence-ridden atmosphere of the world. A new School will be opened on Peace Studies, to which Gandhi and Peace Studies, which already has been charted as a post graduate programme, will belong.

The launch was followed by intensive two-hour long interaction with the Community College delegates and the IGNOU team of faculty members and the Pro-Vice Chancellors led by the Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai. The delegates discussed their problems in running their colleges at their functional levels till now, and also said about some imagined problems which dogged them enough. In a cordial spontaneous atmosphere of interaction, the delegates were given satisfactory response for the IGNOU think-tank.

3rd July, 2009

M.A., Face to Face Course in Gender and Development

School of Gender and Development Studies is offering M.A., Face to Face course in Gender and Development. Admission opens till 15th July, 09. Check the common prospectus on Web Site for more information.

28th June, 2009

MS Swaminathan calls for ‘Jal Swaraj’, as IGNOU launches water harvesting courses'

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) today launched through teleconferencing a Certificate programme in Water Harvesting and Management (CWHM). The university also made all its 60 Regional Centres the Special Programme Centres (SPCs) for this programme. The learning package will be supported by audio video CDS and cassettes made available at SPCs and Regional Centres.

IGNOU Regional Directors have been asked to identify experts in their regions who are working in areas of water harvesting, management and conservation to be the Programme Incharges of CWHM. Addressing the campus audience comprising IGNOU scientists, directors of schools, academics, executives and nationwide audience at Regional Centres, their resource persons and learners gathered there, Vice Chancellor Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai advised, “Do not look for university professors or academics for teaching and training this certificate programme. Identify a person in each RC as Programme Incharge who is working credibly in water harvesting and water management areas. They will do local case studies, contextualise programmes ideas, and train learners.”

Lauding the launch of CWHM courses for learners, particularly when monsoon is near, IGNOU Chair for Sustainable Development and Father of Green Revolution Professor MS Swaminathan said, “I am quite excited about the programme. It is a need-based demand for a Jal Swaraj Movement. 60% of agriculture in India is rain-fed. Rainfall is different at different places of the country, somewhere like Ladakh and Leh it is 100 mm in average, whereas at some places like Cherrapunji it is 1200 mm. Doing quality water management and harvesting means ensuring food security for life systems. There is need to do water harvesting in urban areas, educating construction workers and all of us. At Chennai, there is a Rain Centre which provides all information about rain, harvesting, costs, in a single window system of delivering knowledge. We need to do many similar things throughout the country. Indeed harvesting of rainwater and sunlight is a part of modern-day architecture. In rural India , under the Panchayati Raj Institutions, the workers should be given training about water harvesting and management which would effectively support the national rural employment guarantee schemes. Indeed it is very timely, that we should launch a Jal Swaraj Movement in the country to ensure water harvesting and management.”

Only 4% of world fresh water reserves are available in India for supporting 16% population of the world. Mismanagement of water resources results in recurring floods and droughts. Elaborating challenges India faces, Professor Pillai said, “Considerable efforts were made since Independence to increase irrigation potential for food security from 22.6 million hectare in 1951 to 102.77 million hectare in 2007. Most of utilizable irrigation potential has been fully exploited. There is no further scope of its enhancement. In order to meet ever increasing demands for water in various sectors, both rural and urban, rainwater harvesting is of utmost importance today. This Certificate programme will impart necessary skills and expertise to understand water harvesting techniques. The learners will be able to become trainers and organisers themselves at households and community levels for efficient water management in terms of its usage and conservation.”

The CWHM aims to sensitize people to augment water resources, train students about necessary skills to understand the water harvesting techniques, create trainers and organisers from the learners who would train others and organise households and community people for efficient water management in terns of use cum conservation of water.

The CWHM will comprise four courses. These are ‘Introduction to Water harvesting’, ‘Basics of Hydrology’, ‘Water Harvesting, Conservation and Utilization’, and ‘Practical Training at a Water Harvesting Agency’.

The programme has been conceptualised by Dr Sanjeev Pandey, Regional Director of IGNOU Regional Centre 2 (based in Delhi ), at his centre in coordination with Engineer Mukesh Kumar of School of Agriculture (SOA) of the university. Opening the programme to the learner communities through videoconferencing has started a new genre of awareness programme aiming at development of grassroots population. The Regional Centre 2 and the School of Agriculture (SoA) will now jointly coordinate with learners about its day-to-day running. The targeted learners are the class 10th pass-outs and the students undergoing the Bachelor of Preparatory Programme (BPP) at study centres.

The Regional Centre and the SoA also identified job openings for learners after this certificate programme. SOA director Professor BS Hansra listed a few, “There will be jobs in government and non-government organisations such as Urban Housing Boards, Real Estate Builders, Soil Conservation and Ground Water Boards as Water Harvesting Assistants.”

21 June 2009

IGNOU calls experts to discuss how to identify workers’ skills

Formal certification of informally trained worker can be complete if her/his level of skills development can be identified and s/he is given a certificate for the skills. To her/him it is as good as a passport to a better livelihood. Be s/he a plumber, an electrician or a cycle or motor cycle repairer, her/his status improves as much as her/his livelihood possibilities. But what can be the procedures identifying the worker’s potential?

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) on Tuesday (June 23) in the campus will start the process in this direction at a brainstorming session of experts in vocational domain areas to identify those procedures. The dialogue is the first of its kind which the nation is going to start countrywide. The recommendations are likely to produce guidelines for further actions which are in tandem of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the expected new ministry for skills development.

The experts will discuss, debate and identify the procedures about how to assess and certify the prior learning. The project is named as Assessment and Certification of Prior Learning (ACPL).

The project is expected to benefit a huge number of working people of the country, including those artisans, who have prior knowledge acquired through on-the-job experiences in the given domain areas, but often are deprived of adequate certification and support.

A number of professional experts have been drawn to join the dialogue. Like many unique empowerment-by-certification programmes, IGNOU’s ACPL will soon become a benchmark in the areas of vocational learning.

Explaining the structure of the ensuing brainstorming session, Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai today said, “The proposed steps will broadly focus on the issues and needs of plumbers, electricians, cycle, motor cycle repairers and other such skilled workers. Considerable work has been done in Australia, Malaysia and the UK. In this context in India, the Prime Minister formulated the National Skill Development Mission, 2008. A separate ministry is likely to be set up soon to focus on skills development tasks. Issues like development of skills of the workforce are expected to be taken up vigorously.”

The session will address :

Issues in meetings of the experts who include employers representatives, training groups, NGOs and private sector leaders
framing of syllabi and curricula
framing of guidelines of assessment of prior learning in a vocation
developing the plan for bridging the gap between prior and required learni

21 June 2009

AWARENESS MODULE ON DISABILITY

As a fast step in creating awareness particularly among IGNOU learners enrolled in different academic programme, about the potential and abilities of person with disabilities, Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) released Awareness Module on Disability.

This has been produced by National Centre for Disability Studies of the University (NCDS).

This module will help the readers to understand the various needs of persons with disabilities and their potential and abilities to contribute to the society.

This module comprising 13 units will also provide information on mental illness, emotional and behavioral disorder, autism and learning disabilities, stated Prof. Omprakash Mishra, Pro-Vice Chancellor, IGNOU.

These units are Understanding Disability, Mental Retardation, Mental Illness, Low Vision and Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment, Communication Disorder, Locomotor Disabilities, Giftedness, Learning Disabilities, Autism, Emotional and Behavioral Disorder, Multiple Disabilities, Legislative Provisions and Facilities.

14 June 2009

IGNOU extends last date for admission to 129 programmes to July 15

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) on Friday announced that the last date for submission of filled-in applications for admission to academic programmes under the Common Prospectus has been extended to July 15, 2009. This is for the session beginning July 2009.

Explaining this, officer on special duty (OSD) for students registration division (SRD) Mr K Laxman said, the Common Prospectus contains details about admission to 129 programmes. The prospectuses of all other programmes are issued by the respective schools of studies. IGNOU has 21 of such schools.

There are 40 programmes for PhDs and MPhils. The extension of date for admission is to 129 programmes only, and not others. For all other programmes, except these 129 mentioned in the Common Prospectus, the last date will remain on June 30 as announced and extensively advertised earlier, Mr Laxman added.

Prospectuses for all programmes will be available from counters at Headquarters, IGNOU Regional Centres and Study Centres, spread across the country and abroad.

IGNOU at present is running 312 programmes for academic and professional capacity-building of the disadvantaged and willing learners. A good number of these programmes are run in collaboration with various industrial organisations under Private-Public Partnership (PPP) schemes and educational institutions, both domestic and international. These programmes have been developed on the principles of need-based education and empowerment of the disadvantaged.

12th June, 2009

EXTENSION IN DATES-M.Sc. ( CHEMISTRY ) PROGRAMME ( ON CAMPUS FULL TIME )

Indira Gandhi National Open University has extended its date of submission of Application form for M.Sc. Chemistry Programme (On Campus Full Time) from 5th June, 2009 to 30th June, 2009.

Accordingly the Entrance test will now be conducted on 19th July, 2009 (Sunday) instead of 21st June, 2009 as notified earlier.

Jun 6, 2009

IGNOU takes up‘Green Campus’ project

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will soon look greener. The rocky terrains, slopes, barren patches in the vast campus of the university will metamorphose into green foliage with avenue trees stooping over creating vegetation cover. Termed as ‘Green IGNOU’, the project has been taken to mark the World Environment Day. The project will naturally look into a number of associated environmental plans the university has in plans.

Explaining the project Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai said, “We are looking at massive plantation of trees, avenue trees, extensive horticulture and others within the campus. It’s a two-year project in which the 80% of the area the university will be turned green. As of now, 20% of the area of the university campus is built up. ”

The university was discussing the campus environmental issues for quite some times. It was facing some insurmountable problems especially in areas of water harvesting. According to Prof Shailendra Kumar Yadav, a reader in the School of Agriculture of IGNOU, the efforts were abortive in most cases as the slopes are much too many to accommodate surface for water harvesting. “Even after boring as deep as 500 feet we get very small amount of water. Only rocky contents are found. Even the rocks are found to be fragile up to deep level. With such soil condition, injection of water into the aquifer is not possible. In fact, best water harvesting is possible when you have a catchment area nearby”

According to the project, in the coming two years, the university will undertake massive plantation drive, landscaping and development of avenue trees for dense foliage all over. Detailing the action plan, Prof Yadav said, “We will also take consultancy from Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), particularly from it Horticulture department, and others as and when necessary.”

Asked if the university would work for development of surface water reserves, Prof Yadav said, “Probably, creating a big pond or something like that will make the water harvesting job easy.”

For quite some years the university’s School of Agriculture has been active in horticulture to a good extent. The new drive on the ‘Green IGNOU’ project will not only create new momentum for sustained protection to the enterprises of the SOA scientists, but also give IGNOU an idyllic sylvanic look, which its academics and visitors will love to see.

Jun 04, 2009

You can submit forms for admission to MSc Chemistry till June 30 now: IGNOU

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) today extended the last date for submission of application forms for admission to M.Sc. Chemistry full-time and on-campus programme to June 30.

At a meeting the director of the University School of Sciences, Prof. Sunita Malhotra, announced that the entrance test for admission, which earlier was scheduled for June 21, will be deferred.

Earlier, in a common admission advertisement published on May 24 in major dailies of the country, the university advertised that for all programmes the last date of submission of forms will be June 30.

Today’s declaration was in confirmation of the last date for submission of applications for admission to the programme.

Jun 01, 2009

IGNOU cuts fees for BPL, rural youth & women by 50% for agri programmes

New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has reduced the fees of ten (10) programmes of its School of Agriculture by a half. Of these five each are in Diploma and Certificate categories, which are high yield and vocation-oriented. The learners will be admitted in these programmes at a concession of 50%, outright from the session beginning from July 2009.

The programmes in Diploma category are in Value-Added Products from Fruits and Vegetables, Dairy Technology, Meat Technology, Production of Value-added Products from Cereals, Pulses and Oilseeds, Fish Product Technology.

Those in Certificate segment are in Sericulture, Organic Farming, Water harvesting and Management, Poultry Farming and Bee-keeping.

At a recent meeting of the IGNOU Academic Council, the school reported that the target group for these programmes are youth and women from rural areas and below the poverty line families. They cannot afford the full programme fee of these programmes. The Academic Council took cognisance of all students from rural India and BPL families and agreed with the proposal for the waiver. Following this, Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai immediately announced a waiver of 50% of the fees for each these programmes.

May 20, 2009

IGNOU soon to start a centre for innovative informatics

New Delhi : A concept about application of advanced innovative informatics at learning and pedagogy was long doing rounds in the corridors of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). What was in fluid form till now will soon take shape, as the Board of Management, which is the governing body of IGNOU, has given the green signal to create a centre envisioned as, Advanced Centre for Informatics and Innovative Learning (ACIIL).

Advance sciences of informatics will innovatively be developed into new paradigms of information technologies within the IGNOU campus.

The centre will be a new hub for research and development in informatics. Its motto will be to build up capacities in technology-enhanced education. The scientists in the centre will conceptualise, guide and build various systems and components for, what is being called as, a National Education Grid (NEG). The hub will be manned by necessary faculty members, PhD scholars and Research and Training Assistants who all will work in state-of-the-art laboratories.

A slew of post graduate programmes in advanced informatics, technology-enhanced learning, computer science, information and computational science, geo-informatics and e-governance will soon be offered.

The ACIIL also aims to develop and service the emerging technology-enhanced learning, teaching and evaluation needs of the open university systems, in various courses of studies.

The centre will support advanced scientific research through applications of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), computer sciences, information systems and general sciences. In the process, a number of associate jobs will be undertaken, such as promotion of development of scientific database, web resources, collaborative open and web community publishing in diverse areas in socio-economic development. The socio-economic fields which have been identified are agriculture, health, e-governance, community development programmes and such others. There will also be support developments in systems of community knowledge management and knowledge empowerment.

The ACIIL will effectively use the National Programme on Technology Enabled Learning (NPTEL), and open content through subject expert groups assisting communities of teachers in their respective subjects.

For that, the ACIIL will support the major projects related to NEG and linkages with established key universities and institutions.

May 28, 2009

IGNOU centre trains state open varsity teachers on Web 2.0

New Delhi : The Inter-University Consortium (IUC) of Indira Gandhi National Open University has developed a few web-based training modules to educate the faculty and staff of state open universities at a five-day programme from June 15 to 19. The training aims to give the target resource persons and their staff smart brainstorming sessions on web-based courses for delivery of instructions.

It is a move long overdue towards educating open universities for shift towards newage distance education pedagogy on the Web 2.0. No longer the printed material used for teaching web tools will be required. Students in coming days will use e-learning tools more than the printed text matters.

In the thick of the new openings of web technologies, the state open universities have to move faster to keep pace with the world in matters of teaching. The newage tool, developed from the world wide web (WWW) will automatically monitor and disseminate lessons on computers through the soft copies.

Web 2.0 is a software which supports group interaction often used in higher education sector particularly distance education. Traditionally, e-learning or online education meant just uploading the text or printed materials with a few multiple choice questions. No interactivity was built into and learners were not empowered by any new knowledge.

In contrast, the Web 2.0 services have potentials to make learning more interactive, personal, social and flexible. That will naturally develop into various learning communities. According to Madhu Prahar, the officer incharge with special duties at IUC, the distance teachers and learners, through Web 2.0, will be able to communicate for one to one, one to many and many to many interactions. The Web 2.0 is not only a technological development but also is based on social learning theories.

Adding insight to the project, IGNOU vice chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai said that the five-day training programme for the faculty and staff of state open universities would address the use of web tools in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) methodologies, create new learning opportunities, explain and use the potentials of Wiki, Podcasting, Blogs and other tools, and apply Web 2.0 approaches in one’s own organisation.

The applicability would enable the state open universities benefit in many ways, he added, giving a brief list of advantages. The faculty and staff of the universities will be able to adopt the Web 2.0 tools in effective dissemination of ODL, a user-centric design approach, implement Web 2.0 applications and provide effective interaction and collaboration among learners and teachers. The ODL will get a stronger support at pedagogy.

In the first batch of the training the IUC will take 28 students, that means two each from the 14 state open universities.

May 06, 2009

IGNOU eyes rural economy boost, launches poultry programme

Just how much is required to run a common household of five in a rural scene in Indian north eastern states? Suggesting any fixed amount is likely to be proved wrong. Because homes in most north east state villages today have some kind of household crafts or arts to sell and earn livelihood.

Poultry is one such, which can make enormous contribution to a household economy as well as that of a society. Says Professor KV Peter, former Vice Chancellor of Kerala Agriculture University that if a family has twenty birds and five eggs are laid every day, a family of five can have some part of daily required foods. If a similar household has more birds, then there may be extra eggs every day to sell and earn money from the rural mandi, ensuring the food security of the family every month. That exactly is happening in such villages.

However, stakes are much high considering the enormity of production at places in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra. These states make us proud as the nation has already posted itself to be the third largest producer of eggs in the world, next only to China and USA. India today produces 50.7 billion eggs as is recorded in 2006-07, 46.2 million eggs in previous fiscal.

Poultry is essential to these states economies as most families there would love to consume eggs and flesh. The example can be emulated in all parts of the country very well, in north-east in particular, to boost family economy.

Keeping this in mind, last week, Indira Gandhi National Open University launched a Certificate programme in Poultry Farming (CPF) at a nationwide videoconferencing, with most Regional Directors and their staff and resource persons hooked to join the interactives. The programme targets unemployed rural youths, women, farmers and entrepreneurs. Enrolment to the programme has already started. No wonder, the move would be started from a Regional Director from a northeastern region, where it is most sought-after. IGNOU’s Aizawl RD Dr S R Zonunthara incepted the idea and moved for development of the CPF programme for IGNOU.

Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai instructed all RDs to take up the programme immediately. He said, “Translate the course materials in all local regional languages so that the learners can easily pursue the courses. Fees should not be a limitation for any willing learner to pursue the courses of Poultry Farming.” Professior Pillai also advised the RDs of the IGNOU centres to find out NGOs and competent rural people to assign responsibilities of carrying out the courses of the programme. “It’s also important that the RDs and people who

coordinate for the programme implementation and work with the pool of resource persons, should also coordinate with respective local governments, rural development agencies, BPL persons to identify how a sound network can be formed so that large number of youths and farmers take up livelihood opportunities though this programme.”

Asserting that the CPF programme would become another benchmark IGNOU move towards empowerment of the socially disadvantaged, Prof Pillai said, “Lets not wait for any frontier for identifying the Study Centres or Programme Study Centres or Special Study Centres. All centres of whatsoever status within IGNOU must be able to work with local people and do needful for correct implementation of the programme.”

The objectives principally are to:

develop and strengthen human resources
infuse and impart skills at breeding the hens
create awareness about opportunities of employment and livelihood in poultry sector, and
impart basic knowledge and technical proficiency in poultry farming, housing the birds, managing the housing facilities and providing adequate nutrition.

IGNOU School of Agriculture (SOA) has already made a number of spadework in the North East regions in this direction. According to Professor OP Mishra, Pro-Vice Chancellor and incharge of Educational Development for North East Regions (EDNERU) for IGNOU, “The SOA academics Dr P Vijay Kumar and Dr Rajen Girdar coordinated with Aizawl RD Dr Zonunthra and the EDNERU to get the courses written in a realistic manner. The basics of the programme will be poultry breeding and management. The RCs in the NE have already made a big difference in the unemployment scenario in the region by implementing similar other programmes. This CPF programme also will be another benchmark.”

With scientific knowledge and developed management skills, the production can grow in leaps and bound. “Fears like avian flue or the deadly virus attacks can very well be quelled:, said Professor BS Hansra, the SoA Director, “when scientific housing and medical check-ups be put in practice. What is required is adequate awareness about it, and that’s why is this programme”.

The entry to the programme has been pushed down to the basic work-force, the class-8 pass outs. The school drop-outs, housewives, farmers having time off to poultry breeding and entrepreneurs who would love to invest to earn a profit and thereby ensure growth in overall economy of the land have to be conscious of the fact that with a little care the poultry is the best deal.

What happens when the infected bird is recovered from the virus and consumed by humans? Should not the antibiotics residues used to cure them, be absorbed by the host cells of humans too? Prof. Peter has a spontaneous response to the questions. “Once infected, there is no recovery. Recovery is not possible,” he replied. “Just culling” was his straight refrain.

May 12, 2009

Guidelines for IGNOU Community Colleges

Introduction
Community Colleges are an alternative system of education which aims to empower individuals through appropriate skill development leading to gainful employment in collaboration with the local industry and the community. It helps in developing skills for employment and self employability particularly to the marginalised and underprivileged sections of society. Community colleges offer the advantage of tailoring programs to local needs and state-based requirements by using approaches that will be most acceptable to workers in the given community. Community Colleges generally have a 2-year curriculum that either leads to an Associate degree for transfer to an undergraduate college or lead to the students’ direct entry into any occupation or trade. These colleges are a source of economic growth because they provide an educated and skilled workforce that improves the quality of life for individual students, communities, and the nation. EligibilityAn institution applying to IGNOU for registration as a Community College should be run by an educational agency/registered society/Trust or corporate body rooted in community-based activities. They must be credible institutions with a minimum period of five years of proven service and be located in the community it seeks to serve.While submitting the “expression of interest”, the applicant (educational agency/registered society/Trust or corporate body) will specify the Programme Sectors and levels (Certificate/Diploma/Associate Degree), it wishes to offer through the Community College. The detailed programme content and Certificate/Diploma Programmes of IGNOU which the institution wishes to use should be clearly mentioned. RegistrationOn receiving the application, IGNOU will scrutinise its feasibility and constitute an expert committee to visit the institution for interaction with the faculty and verification of facilities. Based on the recommendations of the expert committee the applicant will be informed of its eligibility. In order to institutionalise the procedure and register with IGNOU, the applicant will enter into an Agreement which ensures the following:

The institution will be named as “……….X………. Community College”Fees for the programmes will be decided through mutual consultation by IGNOU and the College.The college will submit to IGNOU the names and details of the Community College Board, Academic Committee and Examination Committee.All programmes on offer by the Community College will have enrolments twice a year i.e. July and January.A registration fee of Rs. 250/- for Certificate; Rs. 500/- for Diploma and Rs. 750/- for Associate Degree per student will be payable to IGNOU.Examination fee as applicable to IGNOU students will need to be remitted along with the examination forms. The course materials available with IGNOU for the Certificate, Diploma Programmes and the materials which may be developed by IGNOU for Associate Degree Programme may be purchased, if required by the Community Colleges.
Evaluation and Certification will be the responsibility of IGNOU.

Need AnalysisPrior to launching programmes the agency should have done a need analysis of the local job requirements and opportunities and incorporate these findings into the curriculum. It should have active linkages with rural, agricultural, industrial and commercial organizations of the locality for empanelling part-time instructors providing on the job training to students and provide job placement to successful students. Organizational StructureThe college will constitute the following bodies to facilitate smooth functioning of its academic and administrative activities: 1. Community College Board: will be the executive body of the college. The Board will manage the academic matters of the college relating to appointment of faculty, approval of programmes leading to award of Certificate/Diploma/Associate Degree, and regulate the finances of the college. It shall consist of the following members:

4 members- representing the Trust or Management with Chairman or President as Chairperson.

2 members – Teachers of the college nominated by the Principal.

1 member – nominated by IGNOU.

3 members – representing industry/local community/local government administration.

A representative from the local University.

Principal of the Community College (Secretary)

The term of membership will be 2 years and the Board will meet at least twice a year.2. Academic Committee will be the principal academic body of the college responsible for the maintenance of standards of instruction, examination and linkages with the industry/community. The Academic Council will:

make regulations regarding admission of students.recommend to the Community College Board proposals for institution of new programmes of study.advise the Community College Board on suggestions pertaining to academic affairs made by it.prepare syllabi for various programmes.
coordinate the industry/community linkages

It shall consist of the following members:

Principal (Chairperson)4 teachers of the college representing the programme sectors.3 experts from outside the college representing industry, University and community.State Government or local administration representative.A Regional University representative.2 local community leaders.2 members of Community College Board.
Nominee of IGNOU

The term of membership will be two years and the Committee will meet at least thrice a year. 3. Examination Committee: will be responsible for the smooth conduct of internal assessments, mid-term examination and term-end examinations. It will be the custodian of processes related to evaluation such as question paper setting, answer script evaluation, moderation, timely announcement of results and handling of examination related grievances. The composition of the committee will be as follows:

Principal of the CollegeTwo teachers of the college from the Programme SectorOne external academic to be nominated by the College Board A representative of the industry/community from the relevant Programme sector
A nominee of IGNOU

The term of membership will be two years and the Committee will meet at least twice a year.

May 9, 2009

IGNOU Programmes for Social leadership
in India – Access to university for deaf students

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the International Centre for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies (iSLanDS Centre) at the University of Central Lancashire, UK have launched an unprecedented new sign language programme to benefit the professional education of deaf students throughout India and internationally. The iSLanDS Centre is an international hub for sign language research in Preston, UK, and mainly works with partners in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East. The Indian programme includes the first-ever BA degree in Applied Sign Linguistics in India and a one-year preparatory course, targeted at deaf signers. Students will earn both Indian and UK degrees upon graduation. Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU informed that in July this year, the first group of deaf students will begin a preparatory year of studies at IGNOU, the largest distance education provider in India and the national apex body for quality assurance in distance education. The one-year preparatory course will lead up to the BA Applied Sign Linguistics degree, which is due to start in 2010. This course aims at producing language teachers competent to teach literacy and sign language to children, adults, interpreters, parents of the deaf, and teachers for India’s 550+ deaf schools, as well as internationally. This activity is one of the flagship programmes of IGNOU through the Staff Training and Research Institute in Distance Education (STRIDE), IGNOU headed by Prof. P.R. Ramanujam who is also the coordinator of this programme. Course leader Sibaji Panda, MA, said: “Currently in India, most sign language tutors have no formal university qualifications and most teachers in deaf schools have no sign language qualifications. To address this substantial gap, we aim to admit 40 students annually onto the course, which is a dual-award degree programme accredited in both the UK and India. We are holding student recruitment events in May at Kolkata, Chennai, Bangaluru, Baroda, and Mumbai.” Sibaji Panda is the first deaf Indian to study for a PhD in sign language linguistics, and is one of the founding trustees of the Ishara Foundation.Professor Ulrike Zeshan, director of the iSLanDS Centre, said: "We are very keen for the BA programme to be international right from the beginning. Therefore, we are offering a number of scholarships for both Indian and international students through the Deaf Empowerment Foundation. Applications are already coming in from countries such as Uganda, Mongolia, Thailand, and Zambia."She added: "Through this BA programme, deaf students will gain professional qualifications at university level. For the first time, deaf communities will be able to speak with a voice of authority on matters that concern them, empowering their communities in a sustainable way.” This programme also adds real social and economic benefits by providing access to education for neglected parts of society. As the Indian economy grows, marginalised populations are increasingly able to take up educational opportunities. This kind of course provision is a huge step towards resource development in a previously marginalised sector.”The iSLanDS Centre has also worked alongside Mumbai’s Ishara Foundation to set up a literacy programme to teach English to deaf people through sign language. As not all deaf students may be ready for education at BA level, the Ishara Foundation is holding pre-university English literacy support classes to get students ready to enter the BA programme. This is part of a wider English literacy programme founded by the Ishara Foundation and academically supported the iSLanDS Centre, in which deaf students learn English through sign language. This programme is central to the Ishara Foundation’s aim of improving deaf achievement and providing tertiary education streams for deaf students. Noorin enrolled on the Ishara Foundation’s literacy course after being taught by a hearing teacher who used oral communication and no sign language. She said: “I never understood my teacher fully. After I passed my exams, my mother urged me to join a vocational course in garment fashion designing, but later I dropped out because I was not interested. I then stayed home doing nothing, until my uncle and mother found out about Ishara Foundation and I was admitted to the English course. There were deaf students and the most surprising part was that the teacher was deaf and signing. I started to learn and I became fascinated. I told my mother that I wanted to continue learning English.”Another successful student and intern, Shalaka, said: “I was brought up in an oral school for the deaf, but I never understood my teacher’s verbal instructions and I could not read English newspapers. I joined the English course after a deaf friend told me about it. I became more skilled at English grammar with the help of sign language instruction, and got very interested and active in my learning. I began to understand simple English in the newspapers and TV subtitles. Later I got an internship opportunity under Ishara Foundation’s school project, and started teaching English through sign language to young deaf pupils. I would love to work as teacher for the deaf.”For the purpose of teaching English literacy through sign language, the iSLanDS Centre has been developing an online learning platform as part of a research project funded by the UK-India Education and Research initiative. This project, which is implemented together with the Indian partners at IGNOU and Ishara Foundation, and the British Deaf Association as UK partner, will bring English literacy right to the doorstep of deaf learners. Project leader on the Indian side is the director of IGNOU’s Centre for Staff Training and Research in Distance Education (STRIDE), Professor Ramanujam, and his Centre also hosts the new BA.Across India, the Ishara Foundation runs a number of study centres and sends out the best of its own students and schools for the deaf in order to teach English literacy through sign language. The number of beneficiaries has grown quickly to over 400, and some of them will certainly be able to eventually join the BA programme at IGNOU.

The iSLanDS Centre, IGNOU and Ishara Foundation together are developing a vision for a complete Deaf College, where Indian and international deaf students could study a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a sign language using environment that is fully accessible to them.

May 8, 2009

IGNOU starts courses on Professional practices in
Financial Markets with Industry Collaboration

In a step towards addressing the growing needs of the financial markets, the School of Management Studies of IGNOU in collaboration with Financial Technologies (India) Ltd., Mumbai is launching a series of short-term and long-term programmes in the areas of equity, derivative, currency and bond markets and professional practices in Financial Markets. A one-year Post-Graduate Diploma in Financial Markets Practice will be launched as the first step from July 2009 onwards. The programme which is heavily practice-oriented will be on a modular pattern consisting of several independent stand-alone modules and can be upgraded to a Masters in Financial Administration (MBA) after undergoing one more year of study in various advanced specialisations.Financial Technologies Knowledge Management Company (FTKMC), a constituent of the Financial Technologies Group, is a leading provider of knowledge solutions and skills in the financial industry. Knowledge for Markets is a major initiative of FTKMC, under which it conducts numerous activities in the realm of financial education and certification, consultancy, research and advisory, reports and studies covering various asset class markets, including equities, commodities, currencies, debt, banking and financial services, etc. The Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Markets Practice, is a unique initiative in developing education and knowledge on financial markets, providing reach and access to students and professionals across the country. In the background of the growing needs and importance of superior skills required in the financial markets industry, the course is designed to provide greater thrust and focus on practice perspectives on the financial markets, which could enhance the scope for greater opportunities for employment as also entrepreneurship.The academic content for the programme is designed by experts drawn from academia and industry as also experts from IGNOU and FTKMC. The expert group that designed the course curriculum consists of the following members:

Dr. S. Narayan, Former Secretary-Finance, Govt. of India, MBA – Chair Professor, IGNOU

Dr. G Subbayamma, Director, School of Management Studies, IGNOU

Dr. K Ravishankar, Professor, School of Management Studies, IGNOU

Dr. M S Narasimhan, Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore

Dr. G Balasubramanian, Professor, Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai

Raghu Iyer, Expert on Financial Derivatives and Consultant on Tax and Audit

Amitabh Chakraborty, President, Equity, Religare Securities

Dr. Bandi Ram Prasad, President, Financial Technologies Knowledge Management Co.

Dr. Jinesh Panchali, Senior Vice President, Financial Technologies Knowledge Management Co.

Venkat Giridhar, Domain Expert, Commodities and Currencies, FTKMC
Abhinav Chopra, Assistant Vice President, FTKMC – Convenor

The Programme has five courses: (i) Equities Markets (ii) Derivatives Markets (iii) Commodities Markets (iv) Currency and Debt Markets (v) Financial Markets ProfessionalWhile the first four courses will provide the students a comprehensive knowledge on the entire range of financial markets, the fifth course is designed to provide professionals skills and expertise in various roles and job opportunities available in these markets. Thus, the programme combines market knowledge with practice and professional opportunities that make it unique as also immensely useful to the students.The MOU was signed in Mumbai by Mr. U S Tolia, Registrar, IGNOU and Dr. Jignesh Shah, Chairman and Group CEO, Financial Technologies Ltd.V. N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, said, “IGNOU is pleased to collaborate with the Financial Technologies Group to spread education and knowledge on financial markets through our nationwide network. The coming together of the two institutions will mark a major step in expanding the reach and access of the education and knowledge on financial markets to scores of students and professionals across the country in an effective and affordable manner. Given the rapid growth of the financial sector in India, this endeavour would be of great significance in developing expertise and skill-sets that would further strengthen and sustain its pace of growth.”Jignesh Shaw, Chairman and Group CEO, Financial Technologies (India) Limited, said, “The Financial Technologies Group has strong commitment to develop education and knowledge on financial markets nationwide and provide easy and affordable access to students and professionals across the country. In this endeavour, we are happy and privileged to partner with IGNOU, which enjoys the unique distinction of being a pioneering facility for distance education in the world.”

Commenting on FTKMC’s partnership with IGNOU, Joseph Massey, Director, MCX Stock Exchange, said, “The collaboration will harness the synergies of MCX-SX in providing rich and insightful inputs to the students in the practice of financial markets.

May 1, 2009

IGNOU enrolling project handlers

If you plan to construct something, you need to organise yourself about how to go for it. There are certain definite ideas about the shape of things which would follow soon as you start working to translate the plan into action. Here comes the need for training of how successfully a plan or project can be managed. Come July, Indira Gandhi National Open University will start its fresh campaign for creating world-class managers of projects.

A post graduate programme for Certificate in Project Management, or PGCPM, is one of the most revolutionary academic moves in the world to empower the thinking constructors. Similar programme was never even thought of in the Indian academia. Indeed, the university has taken a leaf off from the London-based International Project Management Association (IPMA) to start the PGCPM programme for Indian managers through its benchmark Open and Distance Learning (ODL). The IPMA is present in 44 nations teaching people the tools and art of how to handle projects.

Education and training in the area of project management is an effective means of transforming a society into a project-oriented society. If projects are successfully implemented, a society gains sharp edge over others. According to Dr Manoj Kulsreshthha of IGNOU School of Engineering and Technology (SoET), who is the project coordinator for the learners of the PGCPM programme, “Project Management education should be encouraged in the national interest. Applications of Project Management concepts can improve our ability to keep pace with the international happenings. Keeping this in perspectives, to fulfil the above defined needs PGCPM has been designed.”

IGNOU collaborates with IPMA’s Indian Chapter Project Management Associates (PMA) and Centre for Excellence in Project Management (CEPM) to develop course contents, get resource persons and even to create placement opportunities. “A project has an initial date and a completion date. That’s commitment,” explains Dr Kulsreshthha, “and we teach tools and techniques required for managing a project.”

IGNOU’s target audience of the PGCPM are managers in organisations, in corporate, service and factory levels, engineers handling regular projects, executives working on various schemes in their organisations, members in the general public who want to hone their skills at social projects etc. The PGCPM, therefore, is highly useful for working professionals, academia, aspiring managers and technical manpower.

PGCPM, says Dr Kulsreshthha, has a special feature of total online programme delivery and evalutation. He says, “Like most of IGNOU programmes, learners can download from the homepage the application from and submit it after filling in along with scanned documents and fees (Rs 7,300) by the end of this month. If they file their papers later than May 30, they will automatically be placed for enrolment in the January cycle. Education at IGNOU has become so easy and natural today.”

April 24, 2009

IGNOU Community Colleges likely to start from July

The move for setting up community colleges in all parts of the country has gained momentum, as over 250 institutions met at Indira Gandhi National Open University for a daylong conference to decide action-plan. From May onward, in about 10 states, the university will convene regional meetings of experts, NGOs, governmental and semi-governmental agencies and interested academics of all disciplines to identify and tie-up with formal colleges, finalise programmes and contextualise course contents to start Associate Degree programmes from the July cycle. Similar efforts will gradually be extended to other states in the next phase for starting the move there, maybe, from the January cycle of 2010.

Eminent social workers from some NGOs, vice Chancellors of state level open universities, UGC member Fr. Xavier Alphonse, representatives of leading organisations in the movement like Young Men’s Christian Association and All India Women Conference attended the conference

The university expert committee for the project is busy at present at fine-tuning the current plan. The committee comprises subject experts from states and IGNOU representatives. They would oversee academic planning, develop curricular framework and management of the Community Colleges. The members of the committee will also ensure judicious blend of theory and practice, locale-specific needs clearly integrated and industry-community linkages.

The colleges, which will offer the two-year Associate Degree programmes from the ensuing July cycle, are also likely to be identified in the month of May. Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, who presided over the conference, said that the movement has its seed in the 11th Plan outlay of the nation, in which

Planning Commission had identified Community College mode
strong enough to disseminate education to all segments of the society.

Today’s meeting was conceptualised the community colleges the way these are likely to impact the society and the country’s education scenario.

Community Colleges, which would register with IGNOU, would have to offer Associate Degree on a range of job-oriented industry-trained academic programmes, at affordable costs. The philosophy is: These are colleges by the community, for the community and of the community. The rationale is: These colleges must be able to offer opportunities to all segments of the disadvantaged people. They would encourage students who may want to attend a 3-year degree programme but can not get entry to a formal conventional college due to academic, personal or financial problems. These students would be able to choose from hundreds of academic and technical fields of studies, for their Associate Degrees, which would enable them to get transfer to regular colleges into the third year of the choice degree-courses to become graduates.

The beneficiaries, said Professor Pillai, would be school drop-outs, late entrants into higher education, and working people who find entry into the formal system rigid. The students would be allowed to pursue continuing education through all meaningful formats – face-to-face, online, full-time and part-time. At IGNOU system of Community Colleges, the move of empowerment of students would be faster, stressed Professor Pillai, adding that the students would have options to go for career-oriented qualification in which a three-year degree certificate would not be required.

The Community Colleges would be governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of founders of colleges, representatives from IGNOU and local representatives of governments or industries etc.. Each of these colleges will also have a College Council, Academic Committee and Examinations Committee. The teachers in these colleges would be practitioners drawn from the communities. Said Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr Latha Pillai, who coordinated the conference, “There was a ground feeling that the Community Colleges will be a revolutionary idea as far as alternative education is concerned.”

20th April, 2009

Download the Calendar for the year 2009-10

Stride Training Calendar for the year 2009-10

The Staff Training and Research Institute of Distance Education (STRIDE) has brought out its calendar for the year 2009-10. The organisations of all types -- government and semi-government, private, partner institutes – whichever need their staff be trained -- will now be able to apply for their turn for teachers’ training at IGNOU. The calendar covers wide range of training schedules in various disciplines. The training programmes are short-term and of various types of academic, technical, professional, non-academic and administrative domains. The target groups are staff of IGNOU, state open universities, correspondence course institutes, and other agencies and organisations in India and overseas. Following IGNOU mission, STRIDE also identifies training needs of different target groups in ODL, builds up a resource base of up to date information and training materials, courses and expertise, develops training strategies and materials, organises and conducts staff development activities, promotes research in ODL, and also offers degree programmes leading to M.Phil and Ph.D degrees. STRIDE is an IGNOU wing, which aims to develop capacities among resource persons engaged in the Open and Distance Learning pedagogy. Training of teachers being the key to assure quality education in Open and Distance Learning mode of pedagogy, STRIDE conducts various training programmes for faculty, administrative and support staff engaged in the ODL in India and abroad. Imparting staff training for over two decades thus, STRIDE has been internationally acclaimed. It has served the distance education training needs of Asian, African and the Caribbean countries. Indeed in areas of staff development, training, research and publications, STRIDE has made its presence felt in the ODL of 45 countries. According to Prof PP Ramanujam, Director of STRIDE, “A slew of interests from more nations -- such as from the North and South Americas and Europe -- have been received at IGNOU headquarters. This training programme for the year 2009-10 are indicative of the range and depth of issues handled by STRIDE.”On the concept of STRIDE, Vice Chancellor Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai says, “It has a special role in promoting quality education through various training programmes. We are considering more autonomy to STRIDE training activities, which is likely to increase enormously in near future.”

Apart from training of resource persons, STRIDE also offers consultancy on programme and course development of the ODL. In the past it offered its services to Department of Post and Telecommunication, Indian Army, Bhutan, SOUs and CCIs in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Africa.

9th April, 2009

MS Swaminathan calls for ‘Jal Swaraj’, as IGNOU launches water harvesting courses

Indira Gandhi National Open University today launched through teleconferencing a Certificate programme in Water Harvesting and Management (CWHM). The university also made all its 60 Regional Centres the Special Programme Centres (SPCs) for this programme. The learning package will be supported by audio video CDS and cassettes made available at SPCs and Regional Centres. IGNOU Regional Directors have been asked to identify experts in their regions who are working in areas of water harvesting, management and conservation to be the Programme Incharges of CWHM. Addressing the campus audience comprising IGNOU scientists, directors of schools, academics, executives and nationwide audience at Regional Centres, their resource persons and learners gathered there, Vice Chancellor Professor V N Rajasekharan Pillai advised, “Do not look for university professors or academics for teaching and training this certificate programme. Identify a person in each RC as Programme Incharge who is working credibly in water harvesting and water management areas. They will do local case studies, contextualise programmes ideas, and train learners.”Lauding the launch of CWHM courses for learners, particularly when monsoon is near, IGNOU Chair for Sustainable Development and Father of Green Revolution Professor MS Swaminathan said, “I am quite excited about the programme. It is a need-based demand for a Jal Swaraj Movement. 60% of agriculture in India is rain-fed. Rainfall is different at different places of the country, somewhere like Ladakh and Leh it is 100 mm in average, whereas at some places like Cherrapunji it is 1200 mm. Doing quality water management and harvesting means ensuring food security for life systems. There is need to do water harvesting in urban areas, educating construction workers and all of us. At Chennai, there is a Rain Centre which provides all information about rain, harvesting, costs, in a single window system of delivering knowledge. We need to do many similar things throughout the country. Indeed harvesting of rainwater and sunlight is a part of modern-day architecture. In rural India, under the Panchayati Raj Institutions, the workers should be given training about water harvesting and management which would effectively support the national rural employment guarantee schemes. Indeed it is very timely, that we should launch a Jal Swaraj Movement in the country to ensure water harvesting and management.”Only 4% of world fresh water reserves are available in India for supporting 16% population of the world. Mismanagement of water resources results in recurring floods and droughts. Elaborating challenges India faces, Professor Pillai said, “Considerable efforts were made since Independence to increase irrigation potential for food security from 22.6 million hectare in 1951 to 102.77 million hectare in 2007. Most of utilizable irrigation potential has been fully exploited. There is no further scope of its enhancement. In order to meet ever increasing demands for water in various sectors, both rural and urban, rainwater harvesting is of utmost importance today. This Certificate programme will impart necessary skills and expertise to understand water harvesting techniques. The learners will be able to become trainers and organisers themselves at households and community levels for efficient water management in terms of its usage and conservation.”The CWHM aims to sensitize people to augment water resources, train students about necessary skills to understand the water harvesting techniques, create trainers and organisers from the learners who would train others and organise households and community people for efficient water management in terns of use cum conservation of water. The CWHM will comprise four courses. These are ‘Introduction to Water harvesting’, ‘Basics of Hydrology’, ‘Water Harvesting, Conservation and Utilization’, and ‘Practical Training at a Water Harvesting Agency’.The programme has been made open to everybody, as all other IGNOU programmes are. However, the School of Agriculture (SoA), which has developed the programme and will coordinate with learners about its day-to-day running, targets class 10th pass-outs and bachelor of Preparatory Programme students at study centres.

The SoA also identifies job opportunities. Says its director Professor BS Hansra, “There will be jobs in government and non-government organisations such as Urban Housing Boards, Real Estate Builders, Soil Conservation and Ground Water Boards as Water Harvesting Assistants.”

1st March, 2009

Two day National Seminar on “Emerging Issues in Disability Studies in India”

The National Centre for Disability Studies (NCDS)of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is organizing a 2 day National Seminar on “Emerging Issues in Disability Studies in India” on 5 – 6th March, 2009 at Convention Centre, IGNOU, Maidan Garhi, New Delhi 110068.The seminar will provide an opportunity to interact with the eminent experts/scholars and the stakeholders from the disability sector and give an insight for the future .The seminar will help in various ways:The objectives of this seminar are :1. To identify the focus areas for developing educational, vocational and awareness-generation programme for persons with disabilities, their parents and family members, professionals providing services in the disability sector.2. To develop Innovative approaches and policies for education and training of the persons with disabilities through distance education.3. To identify the appropriate information and communication technologies and software for education and training in the area of disability. 4. To share expertise with other universities/ institutions in the country.Under the main theme of the seminar the focus will be on the following sub-themes :-

Emerging Trends and Challenges in Disability Studies.Role of Distance Education in Disability Studies. Barrier - free Environment. Disability and Law.Models of Disability Rehabilitation.Challenges in Curriculum Development in Disability Studies.Research Methodology in Disability Studies.Human Resource Development.Technological Development in Disability Rehabilitation.
Documentation and Dissemination of Information.

28th February, 2009

20th Convocation of IGNOU
Establishment of City Centre and a Regional Centre in NOIDA

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has opened a City Centre in the heart of Delhi, an additional Regional Centre in Delhi and yet another at NOIDA to ensure better student support in the Capital region. This was announced by Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, VC, IGNOU at the Convocation today. Seven more regional centres have been opened at Goa, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Nagpur, Vijayawada, Thiruvananthapuram and Jorhat. These apart, 300 new learners support centres (LSCs) have also been started in the country to ensure better outreach, he added.The Chief Guest of the Convocation was Professor R. Natarajan, Former Chairman of AICTE and Former Director IIT Madras. Stressing the utility of information and technologies (ICTs) for dissemination of education and acquire knowledge, the celebrated educationist said,” these are leading towards the evolution of a hybrid teaching environment where the lectures and lab facilities of traditional curricula are combined with online lectures or sessions and online accessible lab facilities. This type of scheme is referred to as flexible education.”VC, IGNOU explained how the university handled new challenges throughout the year of 2008 to create new paradigms and benchmarking. As many as five initiatives were taken for development in 2008 with a view to taking education to the doorsteps of learners. These are by initiating Convergence Scheme and Research and Teaching Assistantships (RTAs), starting new think-tank Centres, ensuring Enhanced Technological Access and instituting novel admission systems. The Convergence Scheme projected the targets of the 11th Plan to access higher education by making optimal use of both conventional and ODL systems. As many as 10,000 learners in 359 conventional institutions have responded till December 2008. Students undergoing courses in conventional education were allowed to enrol also for vocational courses of IGNOU and have been made eligible to get degrees or diplomas from both the systems, in the year. That way their innate skills have been honed and their prospect of livelihood was brightened. The infrastructure of the conventional institutions were used at idle hours to effectively run the Convergence Scheme. The RTA initiative has twin objectives : Furthering systemic and discipline-based research and grooming up future generation ODL teachers. In all 126 RTAs have been selected, on a substantial stipend, to undertake discipline-based research and teaching at different locations across the country.Six new centres of learning have been created during the year under report to streamline dynamic ODL systems for capacity-building of professional of various disciplines. These centres are : Advanced Centre for Informatics and Innovative Learning (ACIIL), Centre for Corporate Education, Training and Consultancy (CCETC), IGNOU Institute for Vocational Education and Training (IIVET), North East Centre for Research and Development (NECRAD), IGNOU Institute for Professional Competency Advancement of Teachers (IIPCAT) through ODL, and IGNOU Centre for ODL in Research and Training (ICORTA).For effective ODL functioning, 48 mbps bandwidth connectivity for webcasting Gyan Vani and Gyan Darshan programmes has been made. Online programmes like Cyber Law and MLIS (Masters in Library Science) have been made possible by a gateway, IGNOU ONLINE. IGNOU was honoured with ‘Manthan’ award. A new paradigm was created as SMS Alerts through Mobile Telephony for dissemination of some specified educational information. An integrated tool for dissemination of database of information known as ODLSoft has been created. Besides, students now can take admission anytime and online. Systems have been made flexible to accommodate on-demand examination also. The university is in an advanced stage of developing a number of academic programmes, some high on demand are MA in Mass Communication, PG Certificate in Bangla-Hindi Translation and Bachelor of Vocational Education and Training programmes. Flexibility being the hall mark of IGNOU’s success, a slew of initiatives have been proposed this year. These initiatives are : setting up of 200 Community Colleges offering two-year tertiary education and associate degrees, education of corporates through consultancy services, accreditation of ODL institutions, and credit transfer systems to facilitate learners mobility scopes across institutions. At this Convocation Prof. Ram Reddy Memorial Gold Medal for the highest marks in any Masters’ Degree Programme in Social Sciences was awarded to Ritu Kataria, Prof. Grover award (Cash award) for the best among the physically Handicapped Meritorious students in B. Com was awarded to Sreeshan Mukhand. The CEMCA cash award of Rs. 10,000 for the best IGNOU female student in any degree programme pertaining to technology was awarded to Namita Bajaj and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam cash award of Rs. 10,000 for the Gold Medalist in BSW was awarded to Mr. Mithun Sharma.

1,34,762 Degrees/ Diplomas including 63 gold medals were awarded to eligible students at this convocation. This convocation was simultaneously held through Tele Conferencing via satellite at the Regional Centres of the University. The country wide telecast of this programme was available through Gyan Darshan and Webcast at www.ignou.ac.in.

18th February 09

IGNOU launches courses to groom entrepreneurs

New Delhi: India has a special breed of class which emerges from drawing-room gossips. The class is called entrepreneurs. Two things are common to them – luxury of gossiping supported by familial affluence and connection to source working capital. One thing is natural to them – going sick soon after having started, because most of them succumb to the lure of high-life. Addressing this fundamental lacunae, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Industries (MoMSMI) has come forward with ideas of quality empowerment through knowledge and a fat bag full of money to sustain ideas.The MoMSMI recently came up to the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) with ideas to discipline and groom the enterprising talents in the country into a vibrating entrepreneurial force – so that they produce enough to contribute to the national economy. Indeed, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were contributing about 8% to the national GDP till 2007, before the meltdown. IGNOU tied up with NOIDA-based Alliance College of Management and Technology (ACMT) at an MoU signing ceremony to launch two academic training programmes – Certificate in Entrepreneurship & Skill Development and Diploma in Entrepreneurship & Skill Development. What is most interesting is the fact that the concept of such a tie-up dawned in an IGNOU Director of Patna Regional Centre, Dr Ram Chandra, hailing as he did from a state which often draws flak for non-development.This tie-up with an industrial biggy was the sixth by IGNOU School of Vocational Education and Training (SOVET) shepherded by Professor CG Naidu, its director. The five earlier ones were with Accenture (for BPO training), Security Skills Council of India (for security men's training), CII (for industrial training), Apollo (for paramedical training) and Pearl Academy of Fashion (for training in fashion designing). A slew of other vocational training tie-ups are on cards.

Set up in 1991, the ACMT today has become a front-runner in providing vocational training in north India. It earned professional reputation in skill development training for industries like printing and publishing, information technology, retail chain management and garment. Education is it new effort as it signs up with IGNOU for prospective programmes for skill development and entrepreneurship training. Even the