New Delhi: On Saturday i.e. April 2, 2011, the 20th Convocation ceremony of IGNOU took place at its headquarters. The Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal was invited to grace the ceremony as the chief guest but he sent a recorded message addressing to students. As per sources, he was off to Mumbai for the World Cup final match.
In his message, he talked about the essential need of the increase to spread distance education. He said that distance education has become popular because it offers people from rural, working class communities access to higher education. He also said that the govt is thus targeting an enrolment of at least 7 million students with a majority from the disadvantaged sections and locations, during the next few years.
He also added that the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education is presently hovering at a mere 13 percent, a whole 10 percent below the world average. He said that the Government is setting sights to raise it to the global average by 2020, which by then will be around 30 percent.
Vice Chancellor of IGNOU, Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai talked about the initiatives taken by the university to promote GER. In the same context, he said that 120 districts were identified with the GER between 3.0 and 7.0 where IGNOU can tap the prospective learners in the age group of 18-23 years. Both enrollment of fresh learners by IGNOU and retention of learners in the IGNOU system are being addressed to, he added.
He also said that the IGNOU is playing a key role in creating 500 million certified technicians and skilled workers by 2020. While highlighting the University’s growth story in the past few years, VC later quoted that the IGNOU is uniquely poised to enter the 2010-2020 Decade of Innovation. IGNOU's approach in this Decade of Innovation is to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth in education, skill development, healthcare, energy, agriculture and infrastructure.
Furthermore, he added that the university is planning to design learning and training modules, courses and programmes through which learners can pay skills providers directly. The programmes from which they can make the knowledge and skill acquired bankable through testing and certification, converting them into diplomas, higher diplomas, associate degrees and degrees.
During the IGNOU’s 20th convocation ceremony more than 2.15 lakh students got their respective degrees, diplomas and certificates across the nation. Amongst them, a total of 78 students were rewarded with gold medals. Around 45,000 students got Bachelor's Degree, 21,000 Masters' Degree, 60,000 diplomas and approximately 91,000 students received certificates in a ceremony held concurrently at 51 IGNOU regional centres across the country.
