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Mitraniketan People’s college, An education centre for life

Mitraniketan People’s College

People’s College aims to provide opportunities for continuing education and impart the spirit of lifelong learning for empowering rural youth. It was established in the year 1996 with the co operation of the Association of Danish of Folk High Schools, Denmark. The college integrates the ideas of Danish Folk High Schools and Indian Guru Kula system of education, where the concept of education for life is followed. The education program offered by the college is well integrated with liberal education.

Youth from different parts of Kerala with diverse educational and socio-economic backgrounds studied at MPC over the last 20 years. We are proud to record that this has primarily changed their attitude towards life and built their confidence to function as a responsible member of the community. A large number of youngsters now help their family and community and consider the experience they have gained from MPC as more valuable than what they got from formal education. People’s College focuses on activities based on day-to-day needs to ensure living interaction and practical learning as envisaged by N.F.S. Grundtvig, M.K.Gandhi, and Rabindranath Tagore.

N.F.S.GRUNDTVIG

Grundtvig is the Father of the Danish Folk High Schools. His philosophy of education is best expressed as ‘Education for Life’. He gave importance to people’s enlightenment. For which he believes that the Learning happens not only from reading the written Word, but from actual Life experience and the living Word, in conversation.

The components of education at People’s College include development of Life skills and Livelihood skills. Developing communication skills, language skills, leadership, sports, cultural activities, manual work are part of developing life skills.

Farm and Non Farm skills like Plant Nursery management, tissue culture, plumbing, Electrical, carpentry, automobile, computer are imparted to the students based on their choice/interest. The workshops for each technical skills are Training cum Production centres, so that trainees have ample opportunities for practical learning. We follow “Learning by doing” system and “Earning while learning” method too.

We adopt Participatory teaching learning methods for lively interaction and involvement of students in the education program.

We are following Mahathma Gandhi’s concept of education, Nai Talim (Basic Education) in MPC activities. Gandhi defined education as, “Education for Life and education through life”. Nai Talim is a principle which states that knowledge and work are not separate. He claimed that self realisation is the ultimate goal of education. For Tagore, education is the process of development of whole man not merely intellectual development of the individual. It also emphasizes the physical, moral and spiritual aspect of human personality.

The Courses offered by the College are:

The College offers a one year diploma in vocational cum personality development which aims to promote life and livelihood skills among rural youth. Technical training is an integral part of this Diploma as it helps students from the target group to find employment within their villages. Since most students come from poor background, developing livelihood skills is one of their important aims for survival. We have designed this one-year course by integrating life skills and livelihood skills.
Bachelor of Vocational education (B.Voc) in Agriculture : The college also offers a three year degree program in Agriculture called B.Voc. It is a practice based sustainable agriculture course, certified by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). The course is having 6 semesters in 3 years. An average of 30 students is accommodated in each batch.
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC): NSDC approved Online training programs in GST Practitioner, Account Assistant, Digital Marketing are being conducted in collaboration with SMART SKILLS Raipur who is the Training partner of NSDC. Similarly MPC is initiating another NSDC course on Solar Panel Installation Technician soon in collaboration with SMART SKILLS (www.smartskillsraipur.com).