Paramount Scope of Paramedical Courses at IGNOU Community Colleges

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Paramount scope of paramedical courses at IGNOU community colleges

The Community College Unit of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the Haryana-IGNOU society for Community Education and Training organized one day workshop on the scope of paramedical programmes through community colleges in Haryana at Manesar.

Prof. V N Rajeshekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, mentioned that, "The Community College Scheme is a landmark initiative of IGNOU which has been able to take the University to different corners of the country particularly to the rural and the semi rural areas. By making use of the flexibility inbuilt in the scheme it has been able to provide up-skilling in large number of trades and occupation to many learners across the country. He spoke about the Community Colleges with Indian Army, Air Force & Navy and informed that the total enrolment under the scheme is about 4.3 lakh. This figure has been achieved in two years' time and more than 70% of successful students are in employment."

Speaking on the occasion Dr. S K Soni, the first Plastic Surgeon of Haryana narrated his experience of curing patients with burn injuries at different parts of the body. He had worked mostly in the rural sector and would take the last resort to refer the patient to a city hospital. That is how he came in close contact with the paramedics. He urged upon all the participants of the workshop to give due importance to the paramedics.

Dr. C K Ghosh, Nodal Officer, Community College Unit and Mr. Ravin Ahuja, Principal, Haryana-IGNOU Community College said that the workshop has generated tremendous interest among the participants. Through the two panel discussions it was able to give a proper direction about the policy framework and the implementation strategies of handling the Paramedical Programmes.

Col. P K Dutta, Former and Founder Director of School of Health Sciences, IGNOU shared his experience of serving the army and civilians as well. He stressed on the role of paramedics in providing full support to the doctors in course of their treatment of patients. He appreciated the initiative taken by IGNOU and Haryana Government and expressed confidence that the Community College Scheme will serve many students and provide them gainful employment.

Programmes on the area of Paramedical Sciences have been a big hit among the Community Colleges. The impact has been quite pronounced in the state of Haryana with whom IGNOU has recently tied up through a collaboration to have the Haryana-IGNOU Society for Community Education and Training. A significant part of the Society is the Haryana-IGNOU Community College in the premises of Govt. Polytechnic, Manesar.

Date: 1^st August 2011