Srinagar February 15 : IGNOU as the people’s university is in a unique position to support and promote Indian languages due to its vast reach, affordable fee structure, accessibility of study materials and enrollment of students not only in India but world-wide as well.
NEP 2020 envisions and lays stress on using Indian art, culture and language as the medium to kindle the creative spirit and believes that integrating the mother tongue into the curriculum leads to better understanding. Multilingualism is increasingly sought after in the global marketplace and international institutions are establishing mother tongue programmes. It is therefore in the fitness of things that IGNOU has designed and developed a number of programmes and courses which have this concept at their core.
The School of Humanities offers programmes in four disciplines: Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu and English. In addition to these disciplines, the School has an elective basket of Modern Indian Languages on offer to undergraduates: Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Manipuri and Nepali. Each of these is a 6 credit course and is a compulsory component of the BA programme wherein learners opt for a language course of their choice. These courses touch upon the linguistic features of the language concerned, the history and culture associated with it, various genres of writing and some landmark pieces of literature.
The Centre for Modern Indian Languages (CMIL) has been established in the School with the purpose of conducting seminars, lectures, panel discussions, readings etc, inviting scholars and experts from various languages to speak about the literature, culture, films, music and history of their language. This has been done keeping in mind the priceless treasure and legacy that each region and language have to offer to the country.
While there were Foundation courses in the Bachelors Degree Programme (BDP) earlier, it is for the first time that Modern Indian Language Kashmiri has been put on offer.
It is due to the continuous support of the Vice Chancellor, Prof Nageshwar Rao and the efforts of the then Director of the School of Humanities, Prof Malati Mathur, that it has been possible to offer such a vibrant bouquet of languages to the students of BA General (BAG) first year.
Apart from the printed study materials, IGNOU study materials are also available on the university digital repository eGyanKosh and IGNOU E-content Mobile App which virtually takes it to the doorstep of the learners, no matter where they are situated in the world, informed Dr. Shahnawaz Ahmad Dar, Regional Director, IGNOU Regional Centre Srinagar.
