Alvia receives gold medal at IGNOU convocation

PATNA: MA (Education) student Alvia Sarwat was awarded gold medal at the 32nd convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Patna region, here on Wednesday.
The main function of the convocation was held at IGNOU headquarters in Delhi. Vice-President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, was the chief guest and he addressed the students at 56 regional centres, including Patna, through videoconferencing.
Total 71 students received gold medals across India while 2,00,212 received their degrees, diplomas and certificates.In Patna, total 509 students received degrees of undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma and certificates courses.
The guest of honour in Patna was Chanakya National Law University vice-chancellor Justice (retired) Mridula Mishra. She stressed on the role of open and distance education and appreciated IGNOU for providing quality education to various sections of the society.
Mishra also threw light on the activities of the Patna regional centre in expanding the network of IGNOU to the grassroots level and reaching out to disadvantaged sections of the society. While handing out the degrees, she congratulated the students and encouraged them to work hard to reach their goals.
IGNOU regional director Abhilash Nayak presented the annual progress report of the regional centres. In the report, he highlighted the various activities undertaken by the centre in reaching out to the marginalized people such as weaver community, SC and ST, women, jail inmates and rural population to strengthen student support services.
The new premises of IGNOU Patna centre was recently inaugurated at Mithapur. It is spread across 5,600 square feet. “Recently, we started five new cells, including Career Guidance and Counselling Cell, Students Support Services Centre Cell, Alumni Cell, Placement Cell and Grievance Cell,” said Nayak.