The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Education for a livelihood

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 21, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Education for a livelihood

Xavier Alphonse, S.J.

The alternative system of community colleges aims at helping the disadvantaged find employment in collaboration with the local community and industry.

THE COMMUNITY college movement has been growing in India during the last ten years. It is aimed primarily at empowerment of the socio-economically weaker and disadvantaged sections of society through skills development, thus providing education for a livelihood.

The community college is an alternative system of education aimed at helping the urban poor, rural poor, tribal poor, and women find gainful employment in collaboration with the local industry and the community.

The system is of the community, for the community, and by the community, to produce responsible citizens. The community college promotes job-oriented, work-related, skill-based, and life-coping education. The key attributes are access, flexibility in curriculum and teaching methodology, cost effectiveness, and equal opportunity. All this is in collaboration with the industrial, commercial, and service sectors of the local area, and responding to the social needs and issues of the local community.

The results are internship and job placement within the local area, promotion of self-employment and small business development, declaration of competence and eligibility for employment. There is also an attempt to evolve a profile exclusively for the rural community college.

The community college is the need of the hour. It responds to the challenges of exclusion and elimination from the formal system, mismatch between education and employment capability, poverty, problems of unemployment, under-employment and unemployability, and school dropouts.

The community college movement began in 1995 with the Pondicherry University Community College. The first non-governmental organisation to start the Madras Community College in 1996 was the Archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore. Today we have 153 community colleges in 17 States. It has helped 35,000 students from the socially, economically, and educationally backward groups. Thus, it has become a national phenomenon.

The Madras Centre for Research and Development of Community Education (MCRDCE), Chennai, is the agency for promoting and implementing the concept in India. The MCRDCE has helped in the establishment and monitoring of 135 community colleges. It has conducted 15 teacher training programmes involving 1000 teachers from community colleges in India. It has conducted more than 100 workshops all over the country and four national consultations to propagate the concept.

It has also been working to get recognition and accreditation from the State and Central Governments.

The MCRDCE is also helping to establish community colleges in South Africa, Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania, and Uganda. The development of the system has been accepted internationally by the Association of American Community Colleges (AACC) and Community Colleges for International Development (CCID).

The unique achievement of the community colleges has been the empowerment of the socially, economically, and educationally backward sections of society in the last 10 years. The Madras Centre has been able to gather data regarding 23,609 students from 99 community colleges. The following break-up gives a complete picture of the target group served:

Women form 74 per cent; those married form 7 per cent; the age is 16-48, those who have not passed Class X form 16 per cent; those who have passed Class X constitute 22 per cent; Class XII passed are 55 per cent; degree-holders are seven per cent. Scheduled Castes form 25 per cent; Scheduled Tribes six per cent; most backward classes 15 per cent; backward classes 44 per cent; other castes 10 per cent. Those with a monthly family income below Rs.1000 form 39 per cent; with less than Rs. 2000 are 34 per cent; with less than Rs.3000 form 17 per cent; and with more than Rs.3000 form 10 per cent. Hindus form 55 per cent of the students; Christians 42 per cent; and Muslims three per cent. The job placement was 75 per cent. Thus the concept is a secular one breaking all barriers of religion, caste, region, language, and educational qualification.

The community college prepares its students and makes them fit for life and for jobs through its curriculum. Part-I is Life Skills (21 weeks, 630 hours, 21 credits); Part-II is Work Skills (21 weeks, 630 hours, 21 credits); Part-III is Internship and Hands-on Experience (eight weeks, 390 hours, 13 credits); Part-IV is Preparation for Employment and Evaluation (two weeks, 60 hours, two credits). One credit is 30 hours of work.

The community college system has been working successfully with 75 per cent job placement without getting recognition from any approved educational bodies in the country. However, most of the community colleges feel there is need for recognition from the State and Central Governments to facilitate horizontal and vertical mobility of their students. The MCRDCE has succeeded in influencing the State and Central Governments for recognition and accreditation of the system and for student-centred funding. The issue of accreditation was examined closely by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), New Delhi, at the direction of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). The NIOS has given accreditation so far to 18 community colleges in the country. The Tamil Nadu Open University has recognised 80 community colleges as approved vocational programme centres with nine recognised job-oriented courses. The Madras University has submitted a document on the "Indian Community College System" to the MHRD and the University Grants Commission for ensuring the vertical mobility of the community college students.

The National Committee set up by MHRD is preparing its recommendations to be submitted to Union Minister Arjun Singh. The system has found a mention in Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002-2007), Chapter 2.4 Vocational Education p.51. "There should be focus on convergence of schemes like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Adult Education and Vocational Education Programme at Schools, ITIs, Polytechnics, Community Colleges etc."

It is very promising if the community college system achieves national acceptance. The takers of higher education will increase from seven to 20 per cent in India and 13 per cent would be definitely from the socio-economically weaker sections.

(The writer is Director, Madras Centre for Research and Development of Community Education, and former Principal, Loyola College, Chennai.)

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