Dharmendra Pradhan calls IGNOU modern-day Hanuman for taking education to remotest corners
Apr 26, 2022
New Delhi [India], April 26 : Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday called Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) a "modern-day Hanuman" for taking education to the remotest corners of the country and said that it should become the knowledge centre of the world.
Addressing the 35th convocation of IGNOU, Pradhan called for leveraging technology to reach the unreached.
The Minister said the convocation at IGNOU is a big confidence booster as it reflects the immense possibilities of the innovative pedagogy of the university.
"IGNOU has emerged as a modern-day Lord Hanuman in taking education and learning to the remotest corners and to the poorest," he said, adding that the 21st century is the century of knowledge.
"If we want to establish India as a knowledge-based economic superpower, we must ensure a paradigm shift in our education landscape." He said New Education Policy 2020 is a step toward transforming our education and skills' landscape.
"Technology is the new equaliser. We must ensure the empowerment of our population through innovation, especially those at the bottom of the pyramid and also ensure that education reaches the unreached. Digital University and other e-learning initiatives are steps in that direction," the minister said.
Pradhan said we have to tap our civilisational wealth and also the immense potential of our Indian knowledge system to make our education system more holistic, empathetic and for global good in line with the spirit of Vasudhaiv Kutumbukam.
He said leveraging upon technology, innovation, the internet and digital, IGNOU must endeavour to further enlarge the canvas of education, strengthen the e-content architecture and emerge as a benchmark knowledge centre of the world. IGNOU has to lead the 'Renaissance of Knowledge', he added.
