Foundation stone laying ceremony of Sign Language Centre at IGNOU

IGNOU, along with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, is all set to inaugurate the first-ever Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) at the main campus in New Delhi on October 4.
Mr. Mukul Wasnik, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment; Mr. Kapil Sibal, Minister for Human Resource Development and Communications and IT; Ms. Vibha Puri Das, Secretary, Department of Higher Education, MHRD; and Mr. K. M. Acharya, Secretary for Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment are the chief guests for the ceremony.
“The centre is the realisation of the long-cherished dream of the deaf community in India. It is an exclusive education project for teaching, learning, training and capacity building for the vast deaf population. It will be a full time teaching and training centre for Indian Sign Language combined with distance teaching/ learning opportunities,” said Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, VC, IGNOU.
“This research centre is the first of its kind in India with centres attached to IGNOU. There will be zonal/ regional centres in different geographic regions of the country. The centre would consist of short term, medium and full fledged programmes for both the un-trained and experienced teachers of the deaf schools. There will be intensive training programmes for the sign language interpreters along with research and documentation in the domain of Indian and International Sign Languages,” said Prof. P. R. Ramanujam, Pro-VC, IGNOU.
The centre shall also work in collaboration with other national institutes for the hearing impaired as well as the BA Applied Sign Language degree programme of IGNOU.
The Ministry has approved the establishment of ISLRTC initially on project basis for a period of five years. An autonomous Centre of the university, the Centre will lead the way in the study, academic development, and propagation of the Indian Sign Language (ISL) and in its teaching and training.
IGNOU will make five acres of land available for the Centre in its Maidan Garhi campus. The government has accorded approval for creation of 35 posts for the Centre for Departments like Sign Languages, Interpreting, Library, Documentation and Administration. The Centre will be established at an estimated cost of 44 crore over five years. A Committee, consisting of representatives of national-level organisations of the Deaf, will be responsible for planning and managing ISLRTC.
Its classes shall commence from 15th October 2011 in the temporary buildings of IGNOU with a full time director and visiting and adjunct faculty. The building project for the centre shall be completed within one year while the recruitment shall be completed within two months.
The basic features of the centre shall be to promote the use of ISL in India, carry out research in ISL, create linguistic record/analysis of the language, train people in sign linguistics and other related areas at various levels, design, promote and offer programmes in ISL interpreting and bilingual education at various levels through various modes including the distance mode.
IGNOU has been a pioneer in open and distance education in the country and provides cost effective quality education. The University also has a National Centre for Disability Studies and is conducting Sign Language programmes in collaboration with the University of Central Lancashire, UK, under the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI). Thus, IGNOU is well suited to incubate the ISLRTC. Its vast distance education network, including 64 Regional Centres and more than 3,000 Study Centres will be available to the ISLRTC to expand its outreach.