Ignou building in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 8: The regional centre of Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) here has sought the state government’s permission to start a two-year diploma course in elementary education.

The objective of the proposed course is skill development of untrained teachers at the elementary level.

“The lack of trained teachers in schools has hindered the pursuit of quality education. We are hopeful that the school and mass education department will accept our proposal soon so that we can start the course from next year,” said deputy director of Ignou-Bhubaneswar Subhakant Mohanty.

The minimum qualification for the course would be Plus Two and two years of teaching experience following norms of the National Council for Teacher Education.

Once approved, the diploma course is likely to be introduced at the District Institute of Education Training (DIET), Jagatsinghpur, with 50 seats in the initial phase.

“We have agreed to run the course from our campus. A team from Ignou has already conducted an inspection and they are happy with our infrastructure and teacher educator strength,” said principal of DIET, Jagatsinghpur, S.K. Mishra. Sources said an Ignou centre offering BEd courses was closed down over two years ago.

“Now, if the government accepts the proposal to start the diploma course, it will go a long way in professional development of in-service teachers. Since Ignou will conduct the programme, one can rest assured about the quality,” Mishra said.

Ignou authorities also shared plans of introducing a one-year post-doctoral certificate course in dialysis medicine. “It will start in July next year at the nephrology department of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. There are only four seats and only in-service doctors of medicine or paediatrics may apply,” said deputy director Mohanty.

Entrance exams for Ignou’s four courses — BEd, MEd, MBA and BSc in Nursing — will be held on September 8. BJB Autonomous College and KIIT will be the venues for the examinations in Bhubaneswar. The results will be announced in mid-October and classes are scheduled to begin from January.

Around 10,000 applicants will compete for 1,000 BEd seats at 10 centres in Odisha — Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Balasore, Angul, Baripada, Rourkela, Fakirpur (Keonjhar), Bhanjanagar and Sambalpur.

There are 35 seats in MEd and 36 in BSc nursing. However, there is no limitation on the intake capacity for the MBA course.