Page 15 - UNNAT BHARAT ABHIYAN

14 Fostering Social Responsibility & Community Engagement in Higher Education Institutions in India

5. Kurukshetra (Ministry of Rural Development, GoI)
6. Yojana (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, GoI)

2.2 Adapting Existing Courses for Community Engagement
The purpose of teaching is to enable learning of students. However, the reality of the present
system of teaching in most HEIs is that students feel dis-empowered when taught only in
the classroom style delivery of content. Despite advances in teaching aids, infrastructure,
updated curricula and pedagogies, students are unable to relate what they study in the
classroom to the field realities in which they live and where they would work in future.
Therefore, it is important that the classroom theory is linked to the realities of the local field
areas. Thus, existing courses can be adapted, both in content and pedagogy, for community
engagement to facilitate learning from the field. For instance, management curriculum may
include aspects of micro-financing in rural context; chemistry syllabus can have a component
of conducting water and soil analysis in surrounding field areas; political science syllabus
could include mapping of local rural governance institutions and their functioning.

One of the essential pre-requisites for HEIs to fulfil the twin mandates of improved quality
of learning of students and their practical contributions to socio-economic development of
the nation is to introduce such dynamic curricular reforms which facilitate the connection
between classroom theory and field realities. Within existing courses being taught at
HEIs, community engagement may provide better quality learning opportunities for
students, while also contributing to service to local community.

Dayalbagh Educational Institute (www.dei.ac.in) has a farm on campus, and it is
compulsory for all students and faculty to spend time on the field in supporting agricultural
operations. Likewise, its students of nursing make weekly visit to local communities to provide
immunisation and other primary care services, which are then discussed in the classroom.
Keeping local realities in view, HEIs can develop new contents in existing courses which
make them more relevant to students from the local areas and also be useful to local
community. This will not only enrich the curriculum of existing courses through locally-
appropriate subject matter, but will also create new, locally appropriate course content
that is useful to local community.

Gandhigram Rural Institute (www.ruraluniv.ac.in) has added some new contents to their
existing courses, keeping in view the needs of the local community. For example, Gandhian
Approach to Development, Humanistic Values& Sustainable Development, Bio-products of
Rural Development, Food Security, etc.

Even within the existing curriculum and syllabus, community engaged learning can be
facilitated through use of new and innovative teaching-learning methods. The pedagogies
of engaged & experiential learning can be designed in each course and discipline. These
include field labs, internships, participatory action research, service-learning, community
projects, etc. Engaged teaching entails interaction of students with the curriculum and the
world around the university. An engaged, outward, trans-disciplinary stance will enable
enriching the curriculum and promoting learning in multi-modal pedagogies in addition to