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Twenty-six years since establishment, the world's largest university of its kind, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is faced with doubts surrounding its competence to offer the traditional in-class teaching. The doubts have been raised by none other than the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, despite the fact that the University already runs regular, classroom courses.
The immediate provocation for such doubts came after the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry approached the Human Resource Development Ministry for establishing an “Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre” as a five-year project.
The project involves the training of teachers in sign language-based pedagogy to make education inclusive for the hearing-impaired; research; developing sign language-based pedagogical tools and methods; and capacity-building, among other things.
The HRD Ministry wrote to the IGNOU, seeking clarification on whether it was competent enough to establish such a Centre, as the project involved classroom training. The query took the IGNOU by surprise as it already conducts a full-time B.A. (sign language) course at the National Centre for Disability Studies, which has been functional since November 2006, and has the experience to be able to handle the project. Students from Nepal, Kenya, Uganda and China are enrolled for this course.
Responding to the query, the IGNOU is learnt to have claimed that the objects specified in the IGNOU Act, 1985 specifically provide that the University “shall endeavour through education, research, training and extension to provide access to higher education, particularly to disadvantaged groups.” The University is empowered to fulfil its objects by a diversity of means. Under the Act, the IGNOU too has an obligation similar to other educational institutions, under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.
While sources in the HRD Ministry told The Hindu that there had been a feeling, for quite some time now, that the IGNOU should not conduct on-campus and off-campus classroom teaching, the proposal of the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry was still being examined.
However, at the crux of the confusion seems to be the definition of what constitutes “open education” — a term implying flexible methods, as opposed to distance learning, which, unlike traditional classroom teaching, has no face-to-face contact.
Pointing out that the IGNOU was named an ‘Open University' under its Act, and not merely restricted to distance education, sources said the definition of the “distance education system” in the Act already included contact programmes and the “People's University” had already enrolled close to 500 students in about 14 on-campus regular courses.
The immediate provocation for such doubts came after the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry approached the Human Resource Development Ministry for establishing an “Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre” as a five-year project.
The project involves the training of teachers in sign language-based pedagogy to make education inclusive for the hearing-impaired; research; developing sign language-based pedagogical tools and methods; and capacity-building, among other things.
The HRD Ministry wrote to the IGNOU, seeking clarification on whether it was competent enough to establish such a Centre, as the project involved classroom training. The query took the IGNOU by surprise as it already conducts a full-time B.A. (sign language) course at the National Centre for Disability Studies, which has been functional since November 2006, and has the experience to be able to handle the project. Students from Nepal, Kenya, Uganda and China are enrolled for this course.
Responding to the query, the IGNOU is learnt to have claimed that the objects specified in the IGNOU Act, 1985 specifically provide that the University “shall endeavour through education, research, training and extension to provide access to higher education, particularly to disadvantaged groups.” The University is empowered to fulfil its objects by a diversity of means. Under the Act, the IGNOU too has an obligation similar to other educational institutions, under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.
While sources in the HRD Ministry told The Hindu that there had been a feeling, for quite some time now, that the IGNOU should not conduct on-campus and off-campus classroom teaching, the proposal of the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry was still being examined.
However, at the crux of the confusion seems to be the definition of what constitutes “open education” — a term implying flexible methods, as opposed to distance learning, which, unlike traditional classroom teaching, has no face-to-face contact.
Pointing out that the IGNOU was named an ‘Open University' under its Act, and not merely restricted to distance education, sources said the definition of the “distance education system” in the Act already included contact programmes and the “People's University” had already enrolled close to 500 students in about 14 on-campus regular courses.