The 32nd Convocation ceremony of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was held at URA Academy Hall, Mission Compound, Kohima on April 3.
Higher Education director, Dr. Anungla Aier graced the occasion as guest of honour and congratulated the graduating students for their hard work.
Dr. Anungla also expressed happiness that IGNOU, since its inception, has been contributing substantially to educational requirements of the state.
She mentioned that most higher education institutions in the state are concentrated in main towns like Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung and a very few are located in far flung areas.
According to Dr. Anungla, IGNOU has been able to fill that gap imparting vocational education through their regional and study centres spread across the state.
She opined that with prevalent issues like unemployment, social injustice, political uncertainty and rising crime rates in the state, people should live life and find meaning despite all the negativity in society.
Delivering a report, regional director of IGNOU, Dr. T. Iralu said that they had 806 learners — 506 for Master’s Degrees, 178 Bachelor’s Degrees, 108 Diplomas and 14 Certificates course students. He also said that Open and Distance Learning (ODL) has earned recognition as the most viable, economical and flexible option to reach a large number of people. He added that the university has plans to conduct special drives to enrol education seekers from marginalised groups into their program.
As an initiative for the disadvantaged, free education is also provided to jail inmates through 59 Jail Study Centres across the country.
Iralu also gave a briefing on a future plan of action the University has for Nagaland. Among the plans includes a project to design a regional based program (certificate program) on piggery production in collaboration with the School of Agriculture, IGNOU, and Mithun Research Centre, ICAR, Jarnapani.
He further stated that they would reach out to and activate study centres in all sub-divisional Headquarters of Nagaland to provide higher education opportunities and organize need based training programs to generate self employment opportunities as well as gainful employment for unemployed youths. IGNOU is the world’s largest University and its degrees, diplomas, and certificates are recognized by all members of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). The University, at present, offers 228 programs of study.