The 37th convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was held at IGNOU HQ, New Delhi on 20 February. The event was held through digital mode at 36 selected regional centres (including Kolkata).
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar was the chief guest at University campus, New Delhi and delivered the convocation address.
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Regional Centre Kolkata organized its convocation programme for the learners of West Bengal at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Auditorium, NITTTR, FC Block, Salt Lake. Swami Sarvottamananda vice-chancellor, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute (Deemed University) was the Guest of Honour. While lauding the IGNOU’s mission of ‘democratization of education’ and ‘reaching the unreached’ Swami Sarvattamanandaji told that open and distance learning (ODL) has made knowledge acquisition accessible and affordable to many learners, who otherwise were unable to attend regular institutes of higher learning. Stressing the importance of lifelong learning, he urged the students to continuously learn to remain competitive in this ever-changing world.
Dr Sujata Dutta Hazarika, senior regional director IGNOU Regional Centre Kolkata, in her address highlighted the importance of education to uphold the society, its cultural heritage which can give us a wealth of knowledge and strength for self management. The biggest challenge in institutionalizing ODL in an emerging economy like India is digital divide and IGNOU is consistently exploring inter-institutional networking strategies to overcome this hurdle, she said.
