Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

New buildings for open university

Staff Reporter

Awaiting nod for B.Ed. in Tamil medium

TIRUCHI: Tamil Nadu Open University (TNOU) will have its new buildings constructed in a year to house its academic, administrative and electronics media production centre at a cost of Rs.11 crore on a three-acre area carved out of the premises of the Teacher Training Institute, Saidapet, Chennai, its Vice-Chancellor M.S. Palanichamy said on Saturday.

The construction work, to be initiated by the Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, after the budget session, will be taken up with Rs. 5 crore provided by the State Government, an equal amount from TNOU as a matching grant, and Rs. 1 crore (out of the Rs. 4 crore grant) provided by the Distance Education Council (DEC) for this academic year, he said, inaugurating a workshop for Central Zone Coordinators of Learning Resource Centres here.

TNOU was awaiting the nod from the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) to offer 500 B.Ed. seats through Tamil medium from the next academic year. Already 500 seats are being offered through the English medium. The Distance Education Council has whetted the study materials and TNOU has secured the `no objection certificate' from the State Government.

Also, in keeping with the demand for vocational courses, the university will offer diploma programmes in Beautician and Medical Lab Technician for professionals practising with their infrastructure.

Other important programmes on the anvil are M.B.A. in Shipping and Logistics Management, and B.Sc. in Audition and Speech Pathology.

With the sustained support of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the DEC, TNOU was offering 60 programmes with enrolment of over 52,000 students, though TNOU came into existence only during 2003. The workshops were meant to improve the delivery system of the study centres, which would witness technology integration shortly.

S.C.Garg, IGNOU Vice-Chancellor (acting), who presided, said the distance education concept has helped the cause of higher education significantly, making several youths of the college-going age (17-23 years) a part of the time-bound learning process.

He advocated the maximum use of technology such as tele-conferencing for distance education programmes, noting that innovative partnerships in diverse areas facilitates optimum use of resources.

Recognising study centres as the face of the institution, Prof. Garg emphasised higher sensitivity to queries of learners.

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