Channel 23: IGNOU: Liberal Arts and Humanities

  1. Introduction:
    Liberal arts education is one of the oldest subjects in the world going back to ancient Greek who considered it to be the ultimate mark of an educated person. Liberal art education was considered essential to produce people who were virtuous and ethical, knowledgeable in many fields, with an ability to participate in public life with competence, articulation and finesse. Initially liberal arts covered only three subjects: grammar, rhetoric and logic. This was extended in medieval times to include 4 further subjects: arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. This channel not only gives information but also sensitizes people towards aspects of language, culture and society.

  2. Major topics covered till July 2018
    The programmes so far were interdisciplinary in nature covering topics within humanities, languages (both foreign and Indian), social sciences, gender studies, and so on. Through these programmes the Channel developed the knowledge base of the unreached learners as well as their critical and creative thinking skills. By studying languages, the learners developed their oral and written competencies. Channel 23 also concentrated on teaching life skills which would enable our learners to develop an ethical way of life. The disciplines stressed on were the following:
    1. Foreign languages i.e. French, Japanese and Russian
    2. English literature and language
    3. Hindi literature and language
    4. Urdu literature and language
    5. Linguistics
    6. History
    7. Political science
    8. Public administration
    9. Library science
    10. Economics
    11. Anthropology
    12. Psychology
    13. Gender studies

  3. Upcoming topics to be covered in next 3-6 months
    In future, Channel 23 will cover more foreign languages such as Korean, Spanish, Arabic and Persian. The Channel will concentrate in a big way on Sanskrit language and literature as well as Vedic studies. Modern Indian languages will also be covered. The other areas that we want to stress on are geography and geological sciences, translation studies, social work and sociology.

Channel Coordinator

Role Name Email Location
National Coordinator Prof. Uma Kanjilal New Delhi
Channel Coordinator Prof. Anju Sehgal Gupta IGNOU, New Delhi

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