Open Community Colleges For Youth Empowerment

Dr. O.P. Sharma

(The writer is former zonal director, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Government of India)

Education is an empowering resource that cultivates human mind and provides numerous opportunities to become self dependent. In today’s highly competitive world, education has become more important for effectively coping with daily strains and stresses of life. India has made strides in the field of modern technical education. We have the second largest higher education system in the world. Historically also, the country has been a source of spiritual wisdom to the rest of the world.

Nevertheless, it is also a fact that a large proportion of our people lives below the poverty line and do not have access to formal education. The cost of education, particularly higher education has increased over the period of the time. A large section of people in our country even at present cannot afford higher education for their children. Further, inspite of the respectable position in the higher education only about seven percent of the high school students are going for higher education. Therefore, it requires focused attention to redress this problem. Private and community run educational institutions can contribute significantly in this area.

The concept of community colleges revolves around helping the economically and educationally backward section of the society through education. Therefore, those involved wholeheartedly in this noble profession can take legitimate pride in being true performers of the society. India is a land of opportunities and the need of the hour is to equip oneself with appropriate skills to make best use of one’s potential.

Acquiring technical skills and the self-confidence becomes a pre-requisite for the assimilation of the economically and educationally underprivileged sections of the society into the mainstream. Given the scale of the task and the fact of resource constraint for undertaking such a gigantic exercise, the need for and the relevance of community colleges cannot be overemphasized.

This para-formal mode of education has been found to contribute to the economy in different ways. It is now an acknowledged and established form of education that can pave way for the skill oriented jobs. Agriculture, horticulture and allied activities account for more than one third of the state domestic product of Himachal. Increasing production of fruits and vegetables, flowers and medicinal and aromatic plants has opened new vistas for income and employment. Processing of fruits and vegetables for products like juice, jams, candies and pickles etc requires a good knowledge of processing technology. Potential of this upcoming sector needs plans to impart training in these fields as well. Many students of this new college will find this field attractive and suitable business and employment opportunities in the field of agriculture and horticulture can be generated.

विवाह प्रस्ताव की तलाश कर रहे हैं ? भारत मैट्रीमोनी में निःशुल्क रजिस्टर करें !

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