Mitraniketan People’s College was started in the year 1996 with the financial aid and guidance from DANIDA. It inculcates the ideas of Indian Gurukula system of education and Danish Folk High Schools along with necessary inputs considering the local as well as student’s needs. It follows the concept of ‘Education for life’ & imparts the ideas of ‘Life long learning’ in all its activities. MPC has registered with IGNOU under its community college scheme in 2009 for certification of its educational programs.
People’s College is a unique educational experiment of Mitraniketan aiming to inculcate the non-formal education concepts of Gandhi, Grundtvig, Tagore, Arthur. E. Morgan, and Padmashri. K. Viswanathan.
People’s College offers One year Diploma course in Vocational cum Personality development, and 6 months certificate programs and 2 month certificate programs. The 2 month Certificate in Motor Cycle Service and Repair (CMSR) is the joint program of IGNOU and Hero Honda Motors Pvt. Ltd. aiming to certify the skills of rural mechanics all over India. IGNOU sanctioned a training centre for Mitraniketan People’s College in 2007. Every year, more than 100 rural mechanics and youth from all over Kerala get trained in 4 two month CMSR programs and were mostly placed in Hero Honda Workshops.
The Diploma program, which is of ten months duration is the main activity of MPC since its inception in the year 1996. The course aims to promote leadership and empowerment among rural youth through an integrated residential education programme which is need based and socially relevant. An average of 90 youth has been trained every year. The target group includes the youth belonging to the marginalized and vulnerable sections of the society like the tribals and Scheduled caste students, youth belonging to economically backward communities of the society like the fishermen community and school dropouts.
The uniqueness of MPC course includes:
· No education qualification is fixed for enrolling students.
· No formal exam is conducted to grade/judge the students.
· Curriculum is need based and life oriented.
· Follow the concept of ‘learning by doing’
· Participatory teaching learning methods are followed
The one year course consists of three components ;
i. Need Based General Education
ii. Vocational Education
iii. Associated Activities
The vocational training follows the concept of education for livelihood. The vocational education input/option include: Automobile, Agriculture, Electrical, Computer, Plumbing, Tailoring, Fruit processing, offset printing, lathe & welding and Carpentry. Students trained were linked with related industries and were placed as either employees or as Apprentices at the end of the year, when they completes the course. The methodology followed in training of the students includes learning while doing and learning by doing.
The general education follows the concept of education for life. The course envisages to orient the participants through a need based and integrated education program. The methodology followed is based on participatory teaching learning process and it extend to counter-culture processes and is corrective to the inadequacies of formal education.
Special emphasis is given to co-operative learning rather than competition. Emphasis on cultural heritage, dignity of labour and volunteerism is another highlighting factor of the course. The education is holistic; in the sense it instills a sense of self confidence, self reliance and responsibility to the society & environment among the participants. So the course envisages in developing active citizenship that would contribute to the development of local areas and thus contributing to the nation building process. Functional English, basic mathematics and general knowledge are also given to the students. This helps to create interest in the minds of the students towards these subjects and especially for school dropouts as it is also helpful in orienting them towards the formal education system. An association between IGNOU and People’s College is signed this year for recognizing the one year course as a Diploma programme, by registering the college under the IGNOU community college scheme. So this provides an opportunity for the desired students to pursue their higher education in the same discipline if they are interested.
Associated activities are included in order to develop and provide opportunity to unfold the potentials of the participants to its full extend. Associated activities like the manual work help the participants to value the dignity of labour and prepare them to understand the culture of hard work and sustainable farming practices. The associated activities like the club activities, seminars, story telling hours and cultural programs organized by the students with the help of teachers helps them to open up and explore the world around them and to react to become active partakers in the social & self development initiatives.
Other than the youth empowerment programs the college also offers a variety of programs for empowering the local women by organizing them into women Self Help Groups. The groups act as a link between the local community and the college. Activities are planned and carried out at the community level through these women self help groups with the participation of the students. This provides the students an opportunity to interact with the local community and to practice what they have learned in their class rooms about community development, rural leadership building and community mobilisation. The local community benefits from the knowledge, initiatives and help from these students. So it forms a kind of symbiotic relationship where the students use the local community as a social lab for sharpening their social skills as well for understanding the problems, challenges and needs of the community. The concept of lifelong learning is also practiced at the community level through an association between state Literacy Mission and the college. The local people are encouraged to continue their education through the KSLMA which help the village women to achieve formal education and thus helping to get equivalency certificate.
Thus People’s College becomes a place where students as well as teachers work together as a team to make a difference in their own life as well as in the community around them.