STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Open and Distance Education accounts for about 11% of the total enrolment in the country's higher education. The Central Government's initiative 'Bharat Padhe Online' has laid down a solid foundation all across the nation for sharing knowledge amidst challenges posed by COVID-19.
The above is the opinion of the Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the eminent educationist Professor Nageshwar Rao.
Taking part as the chief guest in the fourth convocation of Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University (KKHSOU) Professor Rao said as the digital and technology has enabled education present great opportunities for a country like India, it is high time for the universities to cater to the needs of diverse and young human resources to harness the demographic dividend.
Delivering the welcome address, the Vice Chancellor of the KKHSOU Professor Kandarpa Das said that the university was established in 2006 by the Assam Government with an objective to provide an opportunity of quality higher education to those, who for some reasons or others, were hitherto, left out from the ambit of higher education.
With the motto Education beyond Barriers, the KKHSOU has been successfully delivering quality higher education, particularly among the disadvantaged and marginalized sections of the society through Distance and Open Mode. The KKHSOU is the only State Open University in the entire North East. The University has been providing strategic support services to its learners located in the remote and inaccessible areas of the State through a network of over 300 Learners Support Centres.
Professor Das said that close to 50% of the total learners of the university belong to the disadvantaged and marginalized communities; while more than 40% of them are women. The University provides free education to jail inmates, differentially-abled and transgenders.
It may be mentioned that the KKHSOU is currently offering 22 academic programmes in graduate and post-graduate levels. The University has been able to empower more than three lakh learners since inception. In its 16 years of academic journey, Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University, the first and only Open University in the North-East India has been relentlessly serving all sections of the society with its 302 study centres all across the State with a strong commitment generated from its motto 'Education Beyond Barriers'.
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