'With the 11th Plan (2007-2012) in progress, we are working on the ambitious target to ensure education access rate to 15 percent in the entire country from the current 10 percent,' IGNOU vice chancellor V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai said in his message to university employees.

IGNOU at present has 62 regional centres and 2,053 study centres.

Further on IGNOU's agenda are community colleges through virtual campus, which will be an extension of university's community radio movement.

'IGNOU will soon start 400 new community colleges to add to the existing 200, which are fast catching up with the information communication technology (ICT) movement,' IGNOU spokesperson Ravi Mohan said in a press release.

'IGNOU has taken ICT and satellite capability to effectively disseminate the open and distance learning. The latest in ICTs is the exploitation of the outreach of mobile phones through broadband,' Mohan added.

Source : indiaenews