Community education: the way forward

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi plans to offer, 2- year long, associate degree programmes through 200 community colleges in India. These courses will focus on employability and will initially be offered in business, office practices, accounting, agriculture, computer technologies, para medicine and para legal disciplines. Students will be able to vertically upgrade to a 3-year degree, in this scheme.

Community colleges, which started in India in 1995, primarily cater to students who cannot afford formal higher education. They offer courses according to the employment needs of the area they are situated in.

Dr. Helen Vincent, Secretary, Stella Maris College and former principal of Madras Community College, Santhome, explains that while class IV workers do not need higher education for their professions and technicians are trained at industrial training institutes, a large number of youth do not fall into either of these categories.

A large number of literate youth can’t afford to go to Arts and Science or Professional colleges. These youth feel left out of the “stereotyped degree system” Community colleges, she says, concentrate on life skills like personality development and spoken English, while preparing them to work in sectors like computers, travel and tourism, logistics and so on.

“Young women are in great demand as home nurses and for old-age care. There are petty shopkeepers who, with basic skills in retail management, can run their businesses efficiently and with dignity,” adds Dr. Vincent.

There is a feeling among educationists and industrialists that mainstream colleges have outlived their utility as providers of employable youth. Community colleges are attempting to fill this vacuum.

Currently, the Tamil Nadu Open University (TNOU), Chennai recognizes 118 community colleges in India. The Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU), Nashik is to follow suit in Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat, while the Haryana government has also come forward to do the same.

Despite the 11th five-year plan directive for community colleges to be established in backward districts, most of them are based in urban areas. This is more feasible as they draw upon faculty from regular colleges and are able to get industry experts for work training. To bridge this urban-rural divide, many such colleges offer scholarships and limited hostel facilities.

Dr. Vincent points out that a group of nuns that run a community college in the Sathyamangalam forests, teaching para medicine to tribal women. The students intern in a hospital attached to the college.

N. Manimegalai, undergoing teachers training at Nirmala Community College in Santhome, says that the hostel facilities are good in her college. She and her friend Suganthi, studying desktop publishing (DTP) in the same college, are enjoying full scholarships, which include tuition fees, hostel and mess facilities.

Manimegalai, who joined this course after completing school, is from Alathur, a village near Vandalur, on Chennai’s outskirts. She says she is confident of getting a job in a kindergarten school, as almost all her seniors have got jobs.

Suganthi too is confident of getting a job and doesn’t want to get married at the moment. She is interested in computers and may pursue further studies after working for a while.

According to their principal, Sr. Angela Antonysamy, their annual hostel and mess fees are Rs. 10, 000 and the annual courses fees are Rs. 7000 for teachers training and Rs. 4000 for the DTP course. “We are subsidized by the fees we collect from students of the Cultural Academy we run next door. We can’t afford to pay the staff more than Rs. 10, 000,”adds Sr. Antonysamy.

The nature of community colleges is such that the administrations that manage them cannot expect any profits. Though job prospects are good, the students are economically backward and find it hard to get education loans. Most community colleges, therefore, are run by charitable organizations.

Christian institutions play a big role in this sector. Even the national nodal agency, Indian Centre for Research and Development of Community Education (ICRDCE) is run by the Chengai Jesuit Society and is headed by a priest. As a result, 39 per cent of students are Christian.

The proportion of Muslim students in community colleges is only 3 per cent. Fr. M. S. Jacob, Deputy Director of ICRDCE explains this is not different from the general trend for Muslims in the country. He adds that after IGNOU’s announcement of the new scheme many organizations, including Muslim institutions, have come forward to start community colleges. The ICRDCE plans to collaborate with them after consultation with IGNOU on 31 March.

According to 2001 data from the National Information Centre, Vellore, 36 per cent of school students in Tamil Nadu drop out by the time they reach high school. 90 per cent of these are girls. In the higher secondary level the drop out percentage is a whopping 82.3 per cent. Madras Community College, one of the oldest, of its kind, in India, now only concentrates on coaching students to finish school and helping them pursue degrees and join community colleges.

Though community colleges were initially expected to admit students who just had an elementary education, today a majority of the students already have a higher secondary certificate when they join.

Almost all the students pursue a correspondence degree from a regular university, while studying at these colleges. The ICRDCE statistics point out that while 75 per cent of the students begin to work after graduating from community colleges, 15 per cent go for higher studies.

Dr. Vincent points out that there is a mind set about community colleges that needs to be changed. Looked upon as inferior colleges by society, students do not enjoy government bus passes or scholarships. Ironically, it is in these colleges and not mainstream universities, where the concentration of depressed classes, women and minorities is the highest. Three out of every four community college graduates in India are women.

Placements rates these graduates stand high at 75 per cent. According to Fr. Xavier Alphonse, Director of ICRDCE, in most cases their family income has doubled and this has led to poverty alleviation. He advocates the setting up central placement cells in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industries and chambers of commerce.

The Indian community college model is being replicated in South Africa and Papua New Guinea, where the ICRDCE trains teachers and prepared text books.