Jan 10, 2003 07:29 AM
10757 Views
(Updated Jun 03, 2004 08:35 PM)
IGNOU stands for Indira Gandhi National Open University established in 1987. It is not the first Open University to have been opened in India. The first one was the Andhra Pradesh Open University (APOU), whose Vice-Chancellor was Professor G. Ram Reddy. Professor G. Ram Reddy came to IGNOU as its first Vice-Chancellor. He had a vision, and he built the University brick by brick. Before going to Maidan Garhi, the University was functioning from some rented buildings from Hauz Khas.
Open Learning is at the core of any Open University, which operates under the Distance Education mode. Distance is different from Correspondence Education. In Correspondence Education printed lessons are used. In other words it uses the print media, whereas Distance Education uses print media and the electronic media like radio and television. Further in Distance Education, there are quite a few components like lesson preparation, printing of lessons in the form of books, lesson evaluation, despatch of lessons to the students, preparation of question papers, orientation of paper setters, evaluators and academic counsellors, establishment of study centres and actual counselling. Therefore it won't be an under statement if one says that Distance Education is a commercial activity.
IGNOU is my Alma Mater. I took admission in the Diploma Course in Distance Education, launched for the first time in India, in 1987, when I was a professor at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. Many of us write and speak on lifelong education, but very few really practise it. Therefore, I made it a point to study Distance Education, and appeared at the final examination in 1988 at the age of 57. I got Grade- B. That year there was none with a Grade- A. I have also been trained as an Academic Counsellor, and was visiting the Study Centre in the NCERT Campus, in New Delhi.
I first met Professor Ram Reddy in a Seminar on Innovations in Education organised by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. I was there from the IIMC side. Professor Reddy spoke very well and emphasised the crucial importance of Distance Education in a vast country like India. He concluded by saying that Distance Education leads to democratisation of education in India and other Third World countries. In between his lecture he was giving some humorous bits. He said that at the Convocation for Conventional Education, the parents watch their children getting degrees, but in the case of Distance Education the children come to the Convocation to see their parents getting degrees. Over lunch, he asked me whether we can have a Convocation to award Diplomas. I cited the example of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, which till the other day was granting its Diplomas - D.I.I.Sc, and A.I.I.Sc, equivalent to a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering and a Ph. D. in Engineering respectively. Then I told him about the Indian Institutes of Management who grant Diplomas only after two-year rigorous training, and their Diplomas are superior to the MBA degrees granted by many Universities in India. He was convinced. Today, you find IGNOU offering many Diploma courses and many certificate courses. Its Management Programme is a very popular course among the Defence Personnel. The good thing about any Distance Education course is that you can study at your pace and appear in the examination within a specified period. Professor Reddy used to say that even subjects like Medicine and Surgery could be taught through Distance Education with face-to-face student teacher interactions through well designed practicals.
Professor Ram Reddy was a very affectionate person. Most of the time in a blue Bangkok stitched Safari Suit, he was approachable to one and all without any prior appointment.
It is a pity that we lost him at a young age. While flying from Bangkok, he had a massive heart attack, and the plane landed at the Delhi airport with his dead body. His writings on Distance Education and Open Learning are worth reading seriously.
IGNOU should organise an annual Ram Reddy Memorial Lecture and award fellowships in his memory.
Only the other day at Gandhigram we discussed about the fututre of Distance Education in India.
