IGNOU To Open Study Centres In 11 Odisha Jails

Bhubaneswar: Eleven major jails in Odisha will soon have study centres of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to help inmates pursue education.

“We are planning to provide 18 certificate courses to the inmates,” said IGNOU Bhubaneswar regional centre assistant director Santosh Kumar Panigrahi.

Such centres are already available in five jails, where as many as 244 inmates have enrolled for 24 various study programmes.

Apart from this, plans are afoot to introduce add-on courses for undergraduate and post graduate students of 303 government aided and non-aided colleges of the state. The IGNOU will soon sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Odisha government in this regard, official sources said.

The university will open study centres at these colleges and provide at least five certificate courses. A regular college student can get add-on skills by enrolling for the certificate courses, the sources added.