Jamshedpur, Nov. 18: Learning Bhojpuri would never have been this easy.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) is all set to start courses in Bhojpuri language from the forthcoming academic session.

Ignou officials said yesterday that they have prepared the syllabus for launching the foundation course in Bhojpuri from January next year.

Speaking over the phone from New Delhi, professor Shatrughan Kumar said: “We are first starting the foundation course in Bhojpuri. Later, a certificate course would also be launched. We have grand plans for the language and are gearing up to start even diploma, degree and post-graduate courses within a couple of years.”

Kumar, who is co-ordinating the course, said the foundation course would be of one-year duration and would consist of 16 modules. The entire course would be divided into 64 modules.

“The course has also been linked with the undergraduate courses of arts and humanities streams. Students can now take Bhojpuri as an optional subject at the undergraduate level,” added Kumar.

The proposal to launch the certificate course in June next year is pending with the university.

While speaking about future plans, Kumar added: “We have proposals to start the course at various levels. If all goes well, we would be in a position to introduce even post-graduate courses in Bhojpuri within the next two years. This would open a number of opportunities for students of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other Bhojpuri speaking states,” added Kumar.

The syllabus for the foundation course has been prepared by experts from Bihar and Jharkhand. Besides academicians, people from other sections of the society have also been included in the syllabus formation process.

“The foundation course would consist of modules on various issues. It has covered topics like the impact of Bhojpuri language on media, grammar of other languages, creative writing and computers,” said Kumar.