Kathmandu:

Gone are the days when you had to choose between education and a career. Thanks to ICA PI 9601 Nepal, the international study centre of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for introducing the distance mode of education in Nepal that allows you to continue your education as you do your job.

Since distance education is a new concept in Nepal, people are not clear about how to go along with this programme. To create awareness as well as to make it easier for students to carry along with the programme, ICA organised its second induction programme for the fresh students for the January session at Orchid Hotel on February 4.

Students who have enrolled for the January session received a briefing on the academic procedures, rules and regulations that the students have to follow during their tenure in IGNOU. Biswajit Mukherjee, coordinator ICA, announced that three more programmes at master’s level in Sociology, Rural Development and Public Administration had also been launched.

Dr Tri Ratna Manandhar, former dean, Humanities and Social Science, TU, was the chief guest of the programme. Talking about the importance of distance education in the context of Nepal, Manandhar said, “When the country’s oldest university and its affiliated colleges are forced to carry a heavy load of student enrolment beyond its resources, the introduction of distance mode of education becomes the need of the day.”

Since 2003, ICA has been imparting 25 courses under eight academic programmes from Certificate level to Masters level. Students can enrol twice a year in January or July session in this study centre. Students access the study materials, read it at their own time and can attend the counselling sessions on Saturdays if they want to, if they have any problems.

Exams are conducted twice a year in June and December, under the supervision of Embassy of India. Starting in 1993 with 11 students from Dharan, the number of students has exceeded 500 till date in ICA.