Role of Community Colleges in Transforming India into a Knowledge Society

Abstract

Augmentation of human resource capabilities has become the need of the day when our country is moving toward faster economic growth and development. Universalisation of education has therefore been recognized as a priority in our national policy initiatives targeted at human resource development. The extant institutional infrastructure for both general and technical education has assumed structure and styles that precludes universal accessibility and therefore, it often lags behind when it comes to inclusiveness in educational opportunities. Moreover, contemporary education has very serious lacuna in as much as it is asynchronous with the type of requirements of skills by the businesses and industries, given the type of competition which they face in a globalised world. Progressive democracies such as that of ours can only ill-afford to ignore models of education that are critical to resolve the current impasse of a widening mismatch between demand for and supply of skill-sets required to scale up opportunities for economic and social development. Rethinking new models of innovative alternative education which would be flexible, cost–effective, egalitarian and at the same time relevant and useful, has become the need of the hour. // The community college system which originated in the early years of twentieth century in America, is considered as an important landmark in the history of education. Research on different aspects of community colleges in US have reiterated the significant roles played by community colleges toward enhancing the quality of human resources in different contexts as well as the issues related to performance and accountability of such colleges.