Arming the Armed Forces for a Civilian Life-An Experience of Indira Gandhi National Open University, India
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Abstract
In spite of the organizational facilities streamlined to increase the conduct of training programmes for up gradation of the knowledge, certification of the educational qualification of army men necessitated the collaboration between the armed forces and a Distance Teaching Institution (DTI). In addition, equipping an individual educationally, to face reality of employment procedures in the civilian life, is one of the preventive/proactive measures of rehabilitation. The collaboration that facilitates the education of the armed forces is the Army-IGNOU Educational Project (Gyan Deep Scheme) which is in vogue from the year 2001. This paper discusses about the issues related to this project and how the opportunity for continuing education enables the armed forces for a civilian life after their term of employment in the armed forces. This paper demonstrates importance of the armed men as a new audience of the Distance Learning System and how the implementers are equally new for executing the various activities prescribed by the Distance Teaching Institution (DTI) especially while maintaining the work-life-learning balance. The practical difficulties are mainly those age old difficulties encountered for taking education like isolation, lack of motivation, consistent support from the institution till the completion of the programme of study- into the employees’ doorstep, even though the beneficiaries seemed ‘new’ both from the eyes of the Armed forces and the DTI.
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References
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