IGNOU setting up printing centre at Coimbatore

[dwarakesh]

MADURAI: A printing and despatch facility of study materials of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is being established at Coimbatore, which comes under the jurisdiction of its Madurai regional centre.

Students enrolled in the university's southern zone, comprising Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Puducherry, will receive their study materials from this centre.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Wednesday that the Madurai regional centre had been asked to identify a location for setting up the zonal printing warehouse facility for IGNOU's first-ever printing centre outside its headquarters in New Delhi. Two Regional Directors from the State – M. Shanmugham (Madurai) and K. Panneerselvam (Chennai) – attended a meeting convened in New Delhi between February 4 and 7 where decentralisation of study material printing was discussed.

"The governing board of the university gave its concurrence to have a printing facility in the southern zone, and Coimbatore was finalised," Dr. Shanmugham said. According to him, the objective was to avoid delays and confusion in reaching study material to students on time.

The proposal to have an additional printing facility was indicated by IGNOU Vice-Chancellor V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai during his visit to Madurai last month.

"Starting from the July'09 academic session, the students of southern zone will get their study materials from the Coimbatore unit... We are also identifying empanelled printers for whom printing work will be given," Dr. Shanmugham said.

Dr. Panneerselvam, when contacted, said that printing work would be first taken up on a pilot basis at Coimbatore for B. Ed., computer courses and management programmes. "The decision on decentralisation will benefit the students as it helps in speedy distribution of study materials."

Coimbatore was chosen taking into consideration better transport connectivity and easy access to neighbouring States of Kerala and Karnataka, Dr. Shanmugham said.

Source: Hindu