20 January 2011 MEDIA RELEASE IGNOU revives disappearing Guru-Shishya Parampara “Putting your creative arts or talent in front of others involves some sort of compromise – we at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) do not want that,” said Prof V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai at the convention centre, IGNOU headquarters, during a three day orientation programme of the indigenous art forms by the traditional gurus of the north east region presented by the School of Performing and Visual Arts (SOPVA) in association with Educational Development North Eastern Region Unit (EDNERU). Various gurus from the north eastern states like Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh were present during the function for the Certificate Programme in Indigenous Art Practices (CIAP) being offered in the North Eastern Region through the North Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (ZCC), Dimapur under the Guru-Shishya Parampara Scheme of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Prof. Pillai, while addressing the gurus during the function said, “We pay our respect to each and every art form of this country. Your contribution although is not highlighted but universities should promote and recognise such activities. If you see well noticed art forms today, you can notice that they have advocated for themselves. It is thus necessary to promote your art forms in their prevalent areas. We would like to see these kinds of art forms preserved and acknowledged. There may be several universities offering such a programme, but IGNOU is different.” The Guru-Shishya Paramapara Scheme was launched by the Ministry of Culture in 2004-2005 was made operational through the ZCCs. But, the scheme did not have the provision of certification as a result the trained Shishyas under the Guru-Shishya Parampara Scheme, in-spite of being trained were unable to find suitable livelihood options. IGNOU developed a meaningful curriculum called „Certificate in Indigenous Art Practices‟ (CIAP) to provide certification, to identify the commonalities in the various cultural elements, provide a forum for interaction of the various cultures, document the various forms of folk and tribal music and dances, and establish support mechanism for the art forms that are fast disappearing. The CIAP is a 16 credit course - 2 credit for Theory and 14 credits for Practical with the broad categories of Traditional Knowledge, Art Forms and Folk Skills. The theory curriculum consists of two blocks with three units for each block, which is prepared and printed by IGNOU. For Practical (14 credit), the curriculum would be prepared for every batch during the Orientation Programme. The syllabus for each Guru will be developed in consultation with the experts. The invited Traditional Gurus in the orientation programme have been appointed by the Ministry of Culture, GOI under NEZCC for this year.
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