Governor of Meghalaya, Phagu Chauhan on Monday graced the 36th Convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at IGNOU Regional Center Shillong, NEHU Campus. The Convocation was part of the main function conducted at IGNOU Headquarters at New Delhi and also simultaneously in all 33 Regional Centers across the country.
Delivering the Convocation Address, Phagu Chauhan lauded the Indira Gandhi National Open University for taking the national responsibility of promoting and setting benchmarks for Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and online education (OL) systems in India and world. IGNOU, which is known to be the World’s largest open University with above 3 million enrolments of students in different IGNOU programmes, has made significant contributions to democratizing Higher Education in the country by providing access to a large number of aspirants through the Open & Distance mode and through online mode, he added.
Stressing on the need for shifting from the conventional degree to Skill Development, Employability, Entrepreneurship and Community Development programs, the Governor reiterated the importance for every University in India to make its academic programmes more futuristic and need-oriented. “The NEP puts a greater emphasis on restructuring academic programmes to make them multidisciplinary and holistic. Academic programmes should focus not only on the creation of new knowledge but also to acquire skills required for the job market”, he said.
The Governor further stated that to fulfill India’s mission and goal set by NEP 2020, there is a need of the hour to make a collaborative framework between Central and State government institutes to identify skill-based bridge courses in the emerging area of professional/vocational programmes.
Established in April 1988, IGNOU Regional Centre Shillong at present has 21 Learner Support Services covering 10 districts of Meghalaya. This year there are 1319 learners being conferred Degrees/ Diplomas/ certificates for this 36th Convocation under the Shillong Regional Centre.