A special session on ‘Community Colleges- Opportunities and Challenges’ was organised in association with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Community College Unit on 13 July 2011 at the World Education Summit 2011 in New Delhi,
The session saw the presence of prominent practitioners from community colleges all across India, who shared with the audience the need for community colleges, challenges, best practices and success stories. Chaired by eminent social reformer Kiran Bedi, the session arrived at a significant outcome with strong implications f growth for the future.
Crucial issues
The key speakers elucidated how community colleges are experimenting with rural entrepreneurship on the basis of a need-based curriculum identified by the community. To boost these institutions, it was suggested that the curriculum should be updated regularly and and son training be provided to the students by taking the lab to the field. It was held that these colleges should also aim at developing the confidence of the students, especially through interactions based on love and respect between the students and teachers. ommunity
colleges should also encourage students to innovate during their coursework to create further knowledge. Discussants also drew attention to the fact that ‘unemployability’ is as much a crucial issue in India as unemployment. It was highlighted that job-readiness comes only with soft skills – team spirit, the right attitude, communication skills, the ability to change, etc.
along with technical skills, it is very important to develop soft skills for tapping optimal human potential.Community colleges, therefore, should make soft skills an integral part of the curriculum.
Case studies in innovation
Many interesting innovations in the context of community colleges were discussed at the session. The Mohanb Foundation – (IGNOU Community College), for example, is working towards creating a band of transplant coordinators in India, where they are not yet perceived as healthcare professionals. Organ donation management is an important and emerging profession because there is an acute demand for its services. Another encouraging case that came to light is the ARMY-IGNOU Community Colleges’ vocational education programme for the Army jawans. There are some 47 such colleges all over India and they issue certificates to the jawans for their work in the Army so that their experience in the Army doesn’t go unrecognised. They also train jawans on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and English speaking skills, so that they can begin a second career after the army with ease.
The World Education Summit 2011 organised exclusive sessions pertaining to school education on various thematic issues like meeting global standards in school education; power of ICT, continuous and comprehensive evaluation. The sessions were graced by eminent speakers from the government, academia and industry across the world, 
Univeralisation of School Education: Strategies for Achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in Education…
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Dr Abdul Kalam admired the concept of World Education Summit and gave a message to all the participants that India should be open to sharing expertise and experience available to many nations. At the same time it should also keep in mind the need of educating 600 million people and hence Indian policy, education and training has to walk on its own shadow. India has to build its own education system with employability as a key focus.”
Dr K P Wasnik, Director, Vocational Education, NIOS, Government of India started the session by highlighting the immense opportunities in agriculture, industries and properly planned vocational training system, which will equip and facilitate the creation of technically qualified entrepreneurs. It faces certain challenges with regard to expansion, equity, and access and cost effectiveness. We need to change the quality; faculty training, recognition and accreditation need to be addressed. NIOS had planned this special session to address these challenges and encourage new ventures. 
Uma Tuli discussed about education is not merely a social change but also a creative force which reshapes and remodels society in the desired way. To make it more meaningful it is important to introduce skill training as part of the educational curriculum from primary level. Infact, it is the holistic approach that makes inclusion a reality. 
Terry Neal discussed about the vocational training in New Zealand. She defined vocational education as the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupations in sectors of economic and social life. She discussed three models of vocational education- formal secondary, formal tertiary, informal training, which can be modeled in any three sectors- private, public and non-governmental organisations. 
The session was started by Murlidhar S, Founder and CEO, MeritTrac Services who stated that there is a huge role of solution providers, which can add value to the education system. He emphasised on the need of private sector to bring in a combination of technology, entrepreneurial spirit and finding right need. He explained by taking the example of biometric systems saying, “Last year, we used biometrics for the first time to solve problems. We identified the problem as impersonation in any examination process in India. We combined this issue with available technology and derived mobile biometric authentication service which can be used in the regular pen and paper exam. This has enabled various institutions to completely omit impersonation for secure exam.”
Sushma Berlia, President, Apeejay Stya Group talked about the bottlenecks to investments in private sector. She said, “To improve scalabilities in private investment we should work in two areas: How to do we provide a regulated way to encourage profit making as well as not profit making investments. For profit making, we have an open system for profit environment through companies listed in stock exchange or other regulatory bodies. We should also encourage not for profit investments.”
Amit Gupta, CEO, S Chand Group shared his experience based on the company he represents and his personal experiences. He said that there is a cast difference between higher education resources, which were available 20 years back and the resources needed today. He also opined that there has to be a clear cut linkage between industry academia and policy makers. “As far as private sector is concerned, the government has to open up in terms of policy. Limited number of private educational institutions should be opened but there should also be avenues in terms of creating educational infrastructure, providing management services and outsourcing the components, which private sectors has excelled in.”
Sharing his thoughts, Shantanu Prakash, MD, Educomp said, “According to my experience there is no alternative to private sector experience. Its high time that the debate ends and government takes suitable action. Private sector entrepreneurs are very smart as where there is an opportunity they will find a way to get into it. If you discourage growth of the private sector you distort the system. Nobody is willing to take a hard decision to solve the problem. There is a need to create a set of regulations, which work for everyone to ensure more players coming in rather than restricting them. Bigger issue is that how to create a framework that encourages and incentivises all the stakeholders including government, non government, profit and not for profit.”
Meena Ganesh, MD & CEO, Pearson Education Services spoke about two critical issuesPearson Education Services spoke about two critical issues – access and quality. “The kind of people we produce from schools are happy to do what they are told and follow instructions. There are multiple dimensions
Dr G Viswanathan, Founder and Chancellor, VIT University, focussed on three categories— availability, affordability and quality. He said, “As far as availability is concerned, we must have 1500 new universities in India. A quarter of the population use 3,500 universities, so we need more number of universities. The affiliation system in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan lags behind. More than 10 crore students are waiting to get admitted into colleges. Delhi University does not allow admission below a particular cut off. The new regulation is totally negative in this case. The country is expanding and population is expanding, we also need expansion in education. It is necessary that education should be provided to all. Mobility of students should be allowed in the country rather than encouraging them to go abroad quite often. We need to choose what is best for us and the country.”
The first World Education Summit envisaged as a major global platform for dialogues, debates and deliberations upon policies, tools and methods of learning towards education for all was inaugrated by leading global dignitaries on 13th July 2011
“We need flexibility and change of mindset. Discipline of knowledge is only acquisition of knowledge. What we need is skills for tomorrow, with a change in content of education. We must ensure that a child develops employable skills during school days.” 
The session deliberated on strategies for Education Leadership across different countries to come together and harmonise efforts in bringing cordial relations in education and leadership. It highlighted the strategies of governments from different countries in promoting school education and higher education and their vision for education in the future.
Vibha Puri Das started the session highlighting the issues pertaining to higher education in India. For universalisation of primary and secondary education and improvement in the GER (Gross Enrolment Ratio), “we have to look at strategies that will enable us to achieve these goals.” Smt Das concluded by emphasising on skill delivery to improve GER. Skill delivery should be done in a sustainable manner to ensure vertical, horizontal, diagonal mobility for students from skill to education and back again. Connectivity amongst institutions excellence in terms of optical fiber networks, teaching learning methods and national leaning network is being actualised. 
Dr Narendra Jadhav discussed all the four sectors of education. “We will be precisely involving education in the 12th plan.” Elementary education have two schemes – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Mid Day Meal scheme – which have been implemented across the country. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan introduced in the 11th plan will continue to impact education. 
Dr Taseer Al Nuiami focused on educational reforms globally. The fee policy needs to be revised as education is the basic human right. Incentives for innovation, for reaching the target, for teachers need not necessarily be financial but May be technological for better teaching methods.
Loynpo Thakur S Powdeyl concluded the session with his vision on education. He said that if we set education right, we can set our nation right. Education must be taken to the next higher level of engagement than merely being a mercenary pursuit of degrees and diplomas unrelieved by light and learning. “What we really need is a new civilization- an educational civilization, if you will. The hope is that our children and youth exposed to these learning experiences will imbibe the right kind of knowledge to make them better actualized and more fulfilled human beings.” 
