Community college initiative by the Madras Centre for Research and Development of Community Education

Mylapore Times (dated May 29 - June 04, 2004), a local neighbourhood newspaper in Chennai, interviewed Dr. Xavier Alphonse, a Jesuit priest who set up the Madras Centre for Research and Development of Community Education (MCRDCE) in 1999 to facilitate the growth of community colleges in India. For the last five years, the centre has been actively involved in this process and has, till date, helped to set up 111 colleges.

Dr. Xavier Alphonse, director of MCRDCE, has served as the Principal of Loyola College, Chennai, for three years and currently works in the English Department of this college. He set up the Madras Community College in San Thome in 1996, worked here for three years and visited 18 community colleges abroad, before he decided to set up the centre.

Here's the text of the interview.

How would you define a community college? It is a place that makes people fit for a job. It is an alternative system of education to empower the socially, economically and educationally disadvantaged. Here, we concentrate more on skill development based on each individual. Anyone can join - school dropouts, degree holders who want to learn a particular skill - we even have students from the rural areas. Anyone from the age group of 16 to 47 years can enroll.

What is this 'alternative' system of education?
First, we concentrate on teaching life-coping skills. This covers self-esteem, motivation, time management, dealing with loneliness and failure - a complete attitudinal formation of the individual. Second, we have a dynamic relationship with employers. So far, formal education and industries have been like a railway track, they never met. But with community colleges, they are very much a part of the process. Internship is a must for everyone, because we believe that hands-on experience is invaluable. Here, we follow a reverse process as compared to formal education. We conduct a complete analysis of the employment scene and see where people are required. We have assured job placement.

Why were community colleges started ?
The movement began in order to give equal opportunities to all. In my experience as a teacher, I have seen that the poor always get eliminated. They needed a space of their own. According to a UNDP survey, there are 550 million people in India without skills, though we are ranked seventh when it concerns information technology skills. Obviously, skills of the day are not reaching the poor.

What is the role of the centre you run?
We are the facilitators. Before we help to set up a community college, we conduct meticulous and extensive research on the community. We approach industries or organisations for help and sponsorship. I design textbooks and the centre also helps in teacher training. We have trained more than 650 teachers so far. Now we are trying to make the projects financially viable, as no fees are charged. In the sense, if they cannot pay, we don't throw them out. Some of the students have been known to pay the institution after they get jobs and they even sponsor the education of some of their juniors.

How is the movement progressing ?
It is a positive growth. For our centre, I believe that we have crossed the first stage of conceptualising and implementation. Now we need to concentrate on consolidation and quality sustenance. Personally, I want the community colleges to go to rural areas as well. We need to set them up there, hone skills in integrated farming, horticulture and tapping native medicines so that they can give back to the community. Another thing we need to concentrate on is the vertical growth of the students - how to induct them into other universities for higher studies. I am trying to link up with open universities for this purpose.

The MCRDCE web site provides some more information.

The Community College movement started in India in 1995. As the Community Colleges were emerging, there was a need felt by the Community Colleges to have a Co-ordinating Agency. To respond to this need, The Madras Centre for Research and Development of Community Education (MCRDCE) was started in January 1999. It is an undertaking of the Jesuits of Tamilnadu Province to help, facilitate and consolidate the Community College Movement. The Centre is the unit of the Loyola Technical Institute Society, Madurai.

MCRDCE is a service agency that helps the various Community Colleges in different aspects of the Community College system. It is not a body of accreditation that gives recognition and approval for the Community Colleges. It performs the functions of helping the agencies to establish Community Colleges, monitor them continuously and evaluate them periodically. It has succeeded in bringing all the Community Colleges for five Consultations during the last two years. It has also conducted two national workshops involving the NGOs in India and existing Community Colleges in collaboration with the HRD Ministry. It has fulfilled the function of net working among the Colleges and sharing of information. It has provided a direction and a focus to the Community College Movement.

For more details, contact
Madras Centre for Research and Development of Community Education
Gokul Villa, 'A' Block, Flat No. S5&S6, 2nd Floor,
No. 250, R.K. Mutt Road, R.A. Puram, Chennai - 600 028. E-mail : mcrdce@vsnl.com