Edu-leaders

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) inked a pact with NGO Shuri Foundation to promote the country's indigenous knowledge and traditions.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two aims to develop certificate, diploma, degree and skill training progammes in the subjects of traditional knowledge systems, leadership and management, self-management, psychology and consciousness studies, faculty training and women's empowerment.

"It is through the distance learning mode that knowledge about our cultural resources like philosophy, sufism, yoga, ayurveda, architecture, grammar and natyashastra can be invigorated," said Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) President Karan Singh, who was present at the occasion.

"In this changing world where old structures are collapsing and new are being born, awareness about our own indigenous systems like patanjali, unani, etc. needs to be invoked. We alone are able to combine the east with the west," he added.

According to IGNOU Vice Chancellor V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, such programmes are common all over the world but it is a new concept in India.

"Certification is the requirement of all developing countries and we aim to reach the unreached," he said.

"IGNOU and Shruti Foundation will jointly organize workshops and courses to safeguard and promote guru-shishya parampara (teacher-student tradition) in various fields," said a varsity official.

Source: igovernment