Date:05/07/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/05/stories/2009070554010400.htm

New Delhi

Community college scheme of IGNOU launched

Staff Reporter

The target is to have one such college in each district of India soon: Minister

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandeswari launched the community college scheme of Indira Gandhi National Open University here on Saturday.

The scheme, governing the two-year associate degree programmes to be offered by the IGNOU community colleges, has been articulated after deliberations by academicians and policy-makers of higher education.

Institutions registered with IGNOU to offer certificate, diploma and two-year post-secondary education leading to an associate degree will be referred to as an IGNOU community college. They will provide a range of programmes at an affordable cost to students, with the nature of these programmes and their pattern of delivery depending upon the needs of the local community which the college serves.

“The target is to have one community college in each district of India soon,” said the Minister.

The purpose of community colleges is to provide skill-based livelihood enhancing training and eligibility for employment to the under-privileged and the disadvantaged.

The scheme is specially targeted towards the urban and rural poor, tribals, women, school drop-outs and late entrants into higher education.

Elaborating further, IGNOU Vice-Chancellor V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai said: “About 100 institutes across India are ready to launch the community college scheme. These institutes are not just in rural areas but in the corporate sector as well. However, they are owned and run by the community.”

Eminent agriculture scientist M. S. Swaminathan, who holds the IGNOU chair for sustainable development, hoped the community college scheme would lead to social inclusion.

“The community colleges are not just an alternative to the conventional system of education but complimentary to it. The goal today is to give quality education to students and the need of the hour is to trigger a learning revolution that will ensure that the basic needs of every Indian are met,” he added.