Dr. Ram Takwale
Professor Ram Takwale was a changemaker who addressed real and fundamental problems in the field of education and continuously strived to solve them. He was an Emeritus Professor in the University of Pune and Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nasik. Chief Mentor MKCL Knowledge Foundation, Founder Director Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) and President of Indian Consortium for Educational Transformation (I-CONSENT).
He was born on 11th April 1933 in Hargude village located in Saswad Taluka, District Pune. His initial school education was in Hargude and Saswad. He did his matriculation from the prestigious Nutan Marathi Vidyalaya Pune, graduation from Fergusson College and Masters from University of Pune. He completed his Ph.D. from Moscow State University. He taught physics and guided research in Pune University for over two decades. He was a Vice-chancellor of three Universities: Pune University, Pune (1978-84), founder of Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nashik (1989-95) and Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi (1995-98). He was awarded D.Litt. from Tilak Maharashtra University and Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU).
One of his life-long concerns was to extend education to empower people, particularly in the scenario of diversity, disparity, deprivation and large numbers. He was associated with development of programs of school and teacher education for the always connected environment created by internet. He was interested in evolving a model of new education with development centric creation of value and wealth through cooperative and collaborative working and learning. For this purpose, he was trying to develop cyber-real structure of educational organisation and management, called Param University and Param School, along with the Third Model of Development. The objective was to radically reconstruct current education system and make it suitable for socio-economic transformation required in the 21st century connected world.
He developed a new model of a state open university responsive to the needs of the state by developing teaching learning models useful for work-place based learning. His contributions include development of open and distance education system, work-place based training and education through distance mode, introduction of courses for farmers, industry workers and school dropouts through open learning, change in IGNOU from its print based mode to electronic media, development of the OPENET programme, introduction of extension education in open university system, M Phil. and Ph.D. programme in YCMOU and IGNOU and development of National Action Plan for primary teachers’ in-service training.
He was associated with many national and international organizations and bodies. He was President of the Association of Indian Universities (1994), President of Asian Association of Open Universities (1995-98), Founder Member and the President of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences (1994-95). He was closely associated with the Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada, through its programmes and was a member of the COL Review Committee & Regional Advisor (South Asia) to the President of COL. He was Director Indian Institute of Education (IIE) Pune and also the Chairman of the Committee appointed by the Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra, for IT use in Higher and Technical Education in Maharashtra. He was The President of The Indian Consortium for Educational Transformation (I-Consent) which was indeed his brain child.
He received many national and international awards and honours. The UK Open University, the first and a pioneering open university in the world, honoured him on 30 June 1999 by conferring honorary Doctorate degree on him for his contributions in open and distance education. The other honours include two more honorary Doctorate degrees; Meritorious Service award by AAOU, UGC’s Pranawanand Saraswati Award, and Chaturang Puraskar for Education. Commonwealth of Learning honoured him by conferring Honorary Fellowship of COL on 1st August 2002 in the Durban Conference, South Africa in the International Conference of Commonwealth countries, and he was the only recipient from India.
He had an exceptional vision about the future of Education and was way ahead of the times. But beyond that, he was a humble, moderate, sensitive, fearless, innocent and transparent cultured personality.
