By IANS,
New Delhi : The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has received a $9.5 million (Rs.47 crore) grant from the Japanese government, a statement said Thursday.
This is the third grant-in-aid from Japan and the money would be used to produce quality educational programmes at the IGNOU’s Electronic Media Production Centre — the hub of electronic and broadcast media that produces films aimed at reaching the learners using a variety of communication technologies.
“This bilateral cooperation between the two countries, in the form of the current grant-in-aid programme, would augur well for the future especially in the light of the rapid advances made in the field of ICTs (information and communication technology) and the tremendous growth witnessed in the open and distance education methodologies,” said IGNOU Vice Chancellor M. Aslam.
Under the agreement, the Japanese government will help in procuring a range of equipments to realize the digitalization and programme production of IGNOU more effectively.
The equipment has already arrived and the installation including the operation training will be completed by the end of June.
The university has been a recipient of the Japanese grant-in-aid on two earlier occasions – in 1988 and and 1993 – for improving itof educational technological facilities.