KOCHI: About 500 community colleges, including 20, in Kerala will be cleared during the XI Five Year Plan period as part of the national initiative to enrol more students in higher education in the country, said Indira Gandhi National Open University Vice-Chancellor Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai.
After inaugurating Royal Community College, Kochi, the first community college in the country, he said that M S Swaminathan Foundation, Rajagiri, Wayanad Gandhi Gram are among the institutions that have applied for community colleges.
He said that IGNOU had submitted proposals to the Planning Commission for financial support to the colleges, which would be cleared soon. As of now, IGNOU will support institutions which had the infrastructure to run associate degree courses so that students could get lateral entry to degree and PG courses despite breaking their studies to take up jobs for some time. He stressed the need to have more such colleges at the panchayat-level.
The Vice-Chancellor said that IGNOU would be monitoring the quality of education in the community colleges.
The fees will be reasonable and according to the course that was being offered.
Pillai said that IGNOU had the largest repository of education modules and hence would be helping in setting up curriculum for various professional courses.
In his address, educationist P S Warrier said that the concept of community colleges came from the US and Canada where there were more dropouts.
He said community college was the solution to ensuring that more and more students finish their incomplete education. IGNOU Pro- Vice-Chancellor Latha Pillai said that skilled teachers will be brought in for educating students doing professional courses.
Earlier, in his introductory address, Tissan Thachankary, chairman, Royal Community College, said that there was lack of skilled personnel in the hospitality sector and he hoped that his institution will help in meeting the demands of the hotel and tourism industry.
He hoped that corporate sector would sponsor students so that it could meet the cost of training the students in ‘practical environment’.
T Damu, vice-president, Taj Group and George Dominic executive director CGH group offered felicitations.