HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' on Monday praised IGNOU for making education accessible to people in all parts of the country and developing analytical ability in students through their research activities.
He was speaking at the 33rd convocation ceremony of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Over 2.31 lakh students from throughout India received their degrees across 39 regional centres of the university.
Crediting IGNOU for taking education to every house in the country, the minister said, "I congratulate IGNOU for the excellence achieved by it in developing critical and analytical ability of students through their research activities".
Gold medals were awarded to over 50 meritorious students during the convocation by the minister.
In his convocation address, 'Nishank' lauded IGNOU for having "unprecedented expertise in developing and launching academic programmes that are needed in the present context and very useful for learning communities".
He also mentioned the skill-oriented curriculum weaved around a conducive environment for learners by the university.
Stressing upon the need to develop courses in Indian languages for wider reach, he stressed upon further development of Hindi and Sanskrit in universities.
He appreciated IGNOU for increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), which he said cannot be achieved by the conventional system of education alone. He urged the university to introduce programmes which are employment-centric and help in employment generation.
Prof Nageshwar Rao, the vice-chancellor of the university, said the varsity has introduced 26 new academic programmes including three graduate degree (general), nine graduate honours programmes under CBCS and three online programmes in the last two admission cycles to meet diversified needs in the disciplines of health sciences, vocational areas, tourism, environment change, yoga, development studies, etc.
Informing about the university's online orientation for Digital Migration, Prof Nageshwar Rao added that a Centre for Online Education (COE) has been established to facilitate and guide the design and delivery of academic programmes through online mode.
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