Having fought and won against all odds in hostile battle fields like Kargil and Siachen, the Indian Army has had to retreat in the face of continued hostility it is facing at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to get Bachelor of Science and Commerce degrees for its soldiers.

In the past three years, the armed forces failed to get professional degrees for its soldiers, sailors and air men despite having signed an agreement, paying the fees and undergoing requisite training. The Army fought a losing battle since 2012 and has now decided to abandon trying to reason with the vice-chancellor of IGNOU, professor M Aslam.

Last-ditch effort

A decision has been taken by the Army Headquarters earlier this week to shift its soldiers seeking a professional degree to the Yashwant Rao Chavan Maharashtra Open University. The Army Headquarters is expected to sign an MoU with the Maharashtra Open University for professional certification for its soldiers and Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs). However, as a last-ditch effort the Army has once again reached out to HRD Minister Smriti Irani seeking her personal intervention for a permanent solution to the crisis.

"In the armed forces soldiers join at the age of 18 and after 17 years of service most of them retire at the age of 35. In the Army they learn various trades, from working in the Engineers branch to Signals to computers. We signed an MoU with IGNOU to provide them Bachelors of Science and Commerce degrees where two years of military certification and one year of IGNOU course would be treated as a three-year degree," top sources in the Army told MAIL TODAY.

Till February 2012, about 4.57 lakh soldiers got enrolled in the 'Gyandeep' scheme paying a fee of Rs 34.25 crore. "The vertical mobility scheme would mean as soon as soldiers retire after 17 years of service and enter the civilian street they would automatically be armed with a bachelor's degree. However, IGNOU unilaterally put the scheme on hold playing with the careers of literally thousands and thousands of retiring soldiers," sources added.

This effectively means an air warrior retiring from the Indian Air Force is out on the streets without a degree which could have enabled him to get a job in the civil aviation sector. Similarly, retiring Army personnel have been unable to get jobs commensurate with their knowledge and experience only because they lack necessary certification, despite having undergone training, education and having paid the fee for a degree at IGNOU.

The Army immediately sought a meeting with authorities in IGNOU. "The response of the vice-chancellor professor Aslam was most unfortunate. On July 4 of 2012, IGNOU put all activities related to community colleges on hold and set up a committee to review more than 500 community college schemes. Despite our submission to professor Aslam and authorities in IGNOU that the armed forces have stringent systems of checks and balances the matter was not addressed by an openly hostile IGNOU management," sources insisted.

"The IGNOU Board of Management accepted the committee recommendation for a review of the scheme and even though it said that a special scheme would be worked out for the armed forces and the MoUs would be honoured, the promise has not been honoured," sources added.

Major General AK Mudolkar, additional director general (personnel), Air Commodore SN Mukherjee, principal director (education) and Commodore Ghanshyam Ojha, principal director (naval education) wrote to IGNOU saying the future of retiring soldiers was at stake. But their plea fell on deaf ears.

MAIL TODAY contacted IGNOU for a response and was told professor Aslam was on leave and the matter was being handled by the ministry of HRD.