DACUM Process for Indian Community Colleges: The NSDC and Global Standards

Abstract

This article is based on the community college experiences emerging from India which hasthe largest number of a non-literate population in the world, and possibly the largest numberof out-of-school children. India is undergoing rapid changes due to globalisation,competitiveness and a knowledge-based economy. Linkages with the local community andindustry are an essential prerequisite for the community college movement in India. Thesocial work processes are associated with poverty, unemployment, poor health, disablementand other sources of disadvantage. The community college movement in India is one solution
to India’s persistent problems of under employment, unemployment, illiteracy andunemployability and a powerful means for social workers to utilise to empower peoplethrough community involvement. The objective of this article is to trace the communitycollege movement as an empowering process, to fine-tune the linkages between themovement and the social work profession, and provide guidelines to social workprofessionals to develop and implement the system far and wide as an educational alternativeand empowerment of the poor, through developing suitable and relevant curriculum for thedropouts and slow learners coming out from the economically and educationally undevelopedcommunities in India.