Efforts for reaching the unreached

Since the year 2011 Uttarakhand Open University has made consistent efforts to reach the un-reached sections of Uttarakhand who wish to obtain Higher Education. The University sent various teams of teachers and employees to different geographical locations in Uttarakhand to make the people aware about ODL and UOU. It resulted in mass popularization of UOU amongst the people of Uttarakhand in distant, secluded and marginalized areas of the state. The University had a special focus on women, especially the Muslim women, taxi drivers, workers in different organizations like hotels, hospitals, factories and offices etc.
The University made special efforts to reach out to the defence personnel and Jail in-mates who are deprived of the access to the other modes of institutional learning. In this effort, the University opened one of its LSC at AdarshKaragarhSitarganj (an open jail for those convicts who exhibit improvement in their behaviour and want to start a normal life after their term of imprisonment). It had a good response and even the fee was waived-off and these prisoners were allowed to study from UOU without incurring any cost.
In the predominantly Muslim areas of Uttarakhand like Roorkee, Mangalore, and the other such areas, the University launched programmes of study in Urdu to solicit the participation of the Muslim community of the state. It also resulted in a good response and at present the University has many programmes in Urdu at Under Graduate level as well as Diploma and Certificate level. Similarly, hotel units were persuaded to let their otherwise skilled and experienced staff go in for the Bachelor’s, Master’s, Diploma and Certificate programmes in Hotel Management. It was a mutually beneficial exercise because these people were already skilled and experienced but they did not have any formal certificate, diploma or degree. So the hotel unit got benefit and the University got a number of learners desirous of obtaining the formal certification.
University’s sensitization programmes included promotional visits, organization of seminars, symposia and discussion sessions in various locationsof Uttarakhand. Leaflets, short-brouchers and hand-outs were distributed, articles were written in the local news-papers and advertisements on TV channels were also given. All these activities made the University known to the people of Uttarakhand and it could mobilize a large section of learners to join Uttarakhand Open University and as a result with in the span of one year the number of learners grew about 10 times,i.e., from the earlier 600 to 6000 by the end of 2011. Technically speaking these efforts yielded the results in the later years as well, which are reflected in the continuous growth of learners at UOU.
The University joined hands with some leading local providers like Hiltron which already had a very good base of providing computer skills.Since Hiltron was a body promoted by the state of Uttarakhand, it was possible for the University to collaborate with it. Now, the University’s presence could be seen in all the learning units of Hiltron spread across the state of Uttarakhand.
Thus, the University has made all the reasonable efforts to reach the unreached and to make its presence felt in the state.