Faculty Enrichment Programme  : Community College and Peoples’ Development.

A two-day Faculty Enrichment Programme was held at St. Xavier’s College, Mapusa, Goa, on 29^th-30^th March, 2010. The programme was centred around the theme: Community College and Peoples’ Development. Dr. (Fr.) Xavier Alphonse was the resource person for the programme.
 
Fr. Xavier Alphonse is on the faculty of the Dept. of English at Loyola College, Chennai. A member of the UGC and ex-principal of Loyola College, Chennai, he has pioneered the formation of Community College and is the founder director of ICRDCE, Chennai and has travelled the globe in connection with the advocacy and set up of community colleges.

 Principal Dr. (Fr.) Walter De Sa welcomed the gathering. He commended Fr. Xavier’s visions and goals as an educationist who dares to dream. He stressed the need for an education that is fruitful, for ultimately, what one reaps is dependent on what one sows.

 At the very outset, Fr. Xavier outlined the three-fold agenda for the FEP namely i) Self Critique ii) The importance of a National Perspective iii) Understanding the concept and   Implementation of Community Colleges. He exhorted reaching out to the socially marginalized through Community Colleges. While reviewing the Teaching-Learning Process, Fr. Xavier asserted that the greatest privilege of a teacher is that “A teacher is an instrument of transformation.”

Fr. Xavier expressed regret over the failure of our education system to provide students with adequate coping strategies thereby creating “mental giants but emotional pygmies.”

 The National Perspective on Higher Education assumed focus in the next session. Higher education has undoubtedly expanded enormously in the last 60 years, but it has in its wake numerous challenges. Some of these challenges brought to the anvil include the ramifications of setting up foreign universities in India, expansion with equity, quality and excellence in higher education, accountability of teachers, industry – institutional linkage, among others.

The final session took cognizance of the conceptual framework and the practical aspects of running a community college. The video clips screened in terms of the functioning of community colleges stood testament to the manner in which community colleges like ICRDCE empower young people and thereby restore hope to them. The visuals left little doubt as to how the job oriented and life skill courses offered  -like DTP, Catering, Nursing, Airconditioning and Refrigeration – have made a difference to the lives of the concerned students who he termed “miracles of hope”.

Fr. Xavier then went on to explore the dynamics involved in setting up a community college and exhorted St. Xavier’s to take up the challenge of setting up a community college in the next academic year.