IGNOU to set up centre at Chuchuyimlang

 

Mokokchung, December 21 (DIPR): Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), in collaboration with the Nagaland Gandhi Ashram, Chuchuyimlang, is set to soon open a centre for learning at Chuchuyimlang village. A three-member high official team from IGNOU, New Delhi, visited the village, about 30kms from Mokokchung, on December 19 and 20 to take up on-the-spot assessment and to select the site for setting up the centre. The team headed by Dr. Jayashree Kurup, Deputy Director of IGNOU North East Region, met the villagers and held wide ranging discussions. They also visited the site that has been allotted by the villagers free of cost.
Dr. Kurup, addressing a public meeting on December 20 in the village, said IGNOU’s decision to open a centre of learning at Chuchuyimlang village was because of its definite objective to impart quality education. She said every effort would be made to make the proposed IGNOU centre at Chuchuyimlang a centre of excellence.
The Deputy Director said the proposed centre has assumed significance as it is being decided in the year of IGNOU’s Silver Jubilee. She also said the new centre will focus on areas of social work, agriculture, vocational training, teachers’ training, retraining of teachers, besides Nagaland arts and crafts, North East affairs and tribal studies, as well as Mahatma Gandhi museum and studies. She also hinted that the centre would be known as Mahatma Gandhi College of Social Work.
The proposal for the centre at Chuchuyimlang has become a reality following the much needed initiatives being taken with IGNOU by Natwar Thakar, founder of the Nagaland Gandhi Ashram at Chuchuyimlang. As a result of this effort, a committee had been constituted to take up on-the-spot assessment. The villagers assured full cooperation with IGNOU and said more land would be given, if needed, to make the proposed centre a centre of excellence.
Professor R R Singh, one of the visiting member from IGNOU New Delhi, revealed that there is a plan to offer Masters Degree courses in the proposed centre and that IGNOU is actively considering to start a Social Work course in the first phase. In his address, S Reddy, Chief Engineer at IGNOU, informed that the committee would submit its report to the Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, at the earliest and hoped that the centre would start shortly.
Former Additional Chief Secretary of Nagaland, T N Mannen, who is also an Ad-hoc committee member of the IGNOU-Nagaland Gandhi Ashram project, called upon the villagers to extend full cooperation to make the proposed centre a reality.