AS the community college concept began gaining acceptance, the need for a coordinating agency to help and serve the movement better began to be felt. In response to this need, the Madras Centre for Research and Development of Community Education (MCRDCE), an undertaking of the Jesuits of Tamil Nadu Province, was started in January 1999.
The following are the objectives of the MCRDCE: to include the excluded; match education with employment; have close links with industries; promote the participation of the community; develop skills and competencies; and enhance employability. The MCRDCE responds to the dynamism of the community college movement in India; provides a resource centre with books and study materials; helps in the process of curriculum development; offers training programmes for the community college teachers and administrators; evolves methods of evaluation and assessment of skills; publishes books and articles; popularises the concept all over the country; documents the process and evolution of the community college movement; interacts with the State and Central governments, universities and the University Grants Commission in an effort to make them recognise and accept the community college system as an educational alternative; to replicate the model all over the country with the help of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry; and to enter into international networking of community colleges in the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia, South Africa and Canada.
The MCRDCE has worked with 800 non-governmental organisations in 23 States. The centre is a storehouse of resource material and documentation.
