Sambalpur: The 6th Foundation Day of Odisha State Open University (OSOU) was observed today, the 10th June, 2021 at 12.30 PM online.
Sri AsitTripathy, IAS (Retd.), former Chief Secretary to Govt of Odisha, and presently the Honurable Chairman, Western Odisha Development Council, and also the Principal Adivisor to Honurable Chief Minister of Odisha attended the Celebration as the Chief Guest.
Prof E. Vayunandan, Vice–Chancellor, Yahswantrao Chavan Maharahstra Open University and with additional charge as the Vice-Chancellor of KavayitriBahinabai North Maharashtra University, Jalagaon was the Guest of Honour who delivered the Foundation day Lecture.
Prof. Arka Kumar Das Mohapatra, Honourable Vice Chancellor, Odisha State Open University (OSOU) presided over the meeting anddelivered the welcome address as well as introduced the revered guests to over 525 audience present online. He highlighted various activities of OSOU, the various achievements that OSOU has so far, and how itplans to cary forward its moto of ‘inclusive and wholistic education for all’, notwithstanding geographical barriers. He also spoke on the University’s plan to reach out to the ‘unreached’ by enhancing its current enrolment of nearly 34,000 to over 14,00,000 by 2040.
Registrar of the UnivesityDr. ManasRanjanPujari,presented the Annual Report 2021.
ShriAsitTripathy, IAS, Chief Guest on the occasion, expressed pleasure over establishment of OSOU in Sambalpur, the major cultural and educational hub of Western Odisha.He appreciated the efforts of OSOU in taking education to the door steps of the unreached. He advised the University to launch programs on Skill Development and employability of people at the grass root andannounced that Western Odisha Development Council will be happy to collaborate with OSOU for the benefit of those who are deprived of higher education by encouraging among others desiging and delivery of skill development and capacity building programmes. He also expressed his delight over the success of Open and Distance Learning system especiallythepivotal role it plays in the current pademic.
Prof. E Vayunandan,elaborated the importance of ODL. His speech was a comprehensive narration on the theme of “Historic and Futuristic ODL Learning”. He talked about the nascence of ODL and how it is helping the learners in acquiring knowledge, cutting across disciple, age, experience, and geographical barriers. He also put light on the importance of ODL as mentioned in National Education Policy 2020thatcalls for integration of technology for effective delivery of education in its complete form. He emphasized on multi-mode learning process, alongside Massive Open Online Courses(MOOCs) and OpenEducatonal Resources (OER).
The function was marked by signing of three Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) for academic collaborations between OSOU and three pioneer educational institutions of India,namely,the YashwantraoChavan Maharashtra Open University, Nasik;NetajiSubhas Open University, West Bengal; and Institute of Company Secretaries of India, New Delhi.
Shri.NaliniRanjanSarangi, Comptroller of Finance, OSOU, offered a formal vote of thanks.
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