New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the university that is serving the dream of our Late Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi along with that of many aspiring learners who are unable to access higher education, today completed 25 years of its existence.

Celebrating the Silver Jubilee in memory of her birth anniversary today, President, Mrs. Pratibha Devsingh Patil at the inauguration ceremony in the Convention Centre at IGNOU delivered a speech upon emphasizing the importance of education.

She started by quoting Mrs. Indira Gandhi's vision, "Communication technology frees the entire concept of education from its previous limit of time and space ... we can reach out to the remotest places and to the best minds that exist. We do not have all of it yet in India, but I sincerely hope that we will have it soon and that this will help our education to be more broad-based and deeper."

Following the vision of Mrs. Gandhi, IGNOU has grown extensively in the 25 years of its existence.

It has over 15 percent of all learners enrolled in higher education in the country and offers a wide range of programmes and courses through its vast network of learning centres across the country.

Enumerating the importance of its Regional Centres, the President said that it could play a very important role in reducing disparities in education by extending education opportunities in villages and remote areas.

Bringing together the strengths of face-to-face conventional education and the flexibility of open and distance learning IGNOU has recently started a 'convergence scheme' upon which the President congratulated the university and said, "It is institutions that seek to excel that constantly work to upgrade their facilities and incorporate good practices."

Stressing upon the importance of education she expressed the dire need of the children to go to school and pursue higher education. Proper training, provisioning of skills sets and capacity building of its population are tools, which shall make our human resources competent and confident to face the new set of challenges of a fast changing world.

The President envisaged achieving Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan's goal of universal secondary education by the year 2017 while education to children between the ages 6 and 14 years is now a fundamental right.

Comparing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of India with the world she said that, "It is very low, strenuous efforts are required to reach our goal of enhancing GER in India to 20 percent by 2020."

She discussed the massive expansion plans in the higher education sector and said that, "The National Mission on Education through Information Communication Technology launched in February this year will create internet connectivity to about 20,000 colleges and educational institutions. This initiative will, I am confident bring in the use of modern technology in higher education in a more widespread manner."

While broad basing access to education is important, one must not lose sight of the utmost importance which should be paid to the quality of education being given to students and the need for equity, she felt.

The Open University System being flexible and innovative can be useful for a wide section of society and is expected to help in improving skills sets as only 5 percent of the workforce in India has some kind of certification. This is in contrast to over 85 percent in the developed countries.

Encouragement of work-integrated learning followed by examination, certification and accreditation through distance education is the need of the hour.

"To make it effective there would be a need for active two way collaboration with industry and other players. I believe that Open Universities should also generate a movement in the rural areas that will impel people to acquire knowledge and skills for self-empowerment. In this context, educational programmes like the Gyan Darshan Channel of IGNOU, which is reaching over 8 million homes, can be useful in motivating people," she added.

Distance education offers an opportunity to those already in employment to upgrade their knowledge base, so that they can more effectively contribute to the productivity of work in their organizations.

Studying, while in employment, also offers opportunities for enhancement of career opportunities. IGNOU and the Indian Army have decided to work together to create a process of certification of higher education of soldiers.

Expressing herself upon the new initiative for the Army Personnel she said that, "Till now the skills that the Army personnel acquired while in service were not reflected through any formal degrees awarded to them. I am happy that through this new collaboration, they will get appropriate certification."

Launching the 'Flexi Learn Platform' today at the function she marks it as a significant step to provide an opportunity for prospective learners to sample a course before enrolling and thereby, help them in choosing appropriate courses and programmes.

From this year onwards, the University has instituted the Rajiv Gandhi International Prize for Technology in Education and Development.

The Prize would be given to an individual or an institution that has made significant contributions to educational technology for development in the developing world.