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Sign the Petition requesting The Honble Minister of State for Environment
and Forests (I/C) to maintain the moratorium on issuing further
environmental clearances for mining activities in Goa
http://goanvoice.org.uk/miningpetition.php
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A two-day Faculty Enrichment Programme was held at St. Xavier’s College,
Mapusa, Goa, on 29th-30th March, 2010. The programme was centred around
the theme: Community College and Peoples’ Development. Dr. (Fr.) Xavier
Alphonse was the resource person for the programme.
Fr. Xavier Alphonse is on the faculty of the Dept. of English at Loyola
College, Chennai. A member of the UGC and ex-principal of Loyola
College, Chennai, he has pioneered the formation of Community College
and is the founder director of ICRDCE, Chennai and has travelled the
globe in connection with the advocacy and set up of community colleges.
Principal Dr. (Fr.) Walter De Sa welcomed the gathering. He commended
Fr. Xavier’s visions and goals as an educationist who dares to dream. He
stressed the need for an education that is fruitful, for ultimately,
what one reaps is dependent on what one sows.
At the very outset, Fr. Xavier outlined the three-fold agenda for the
FEP namely i) Self Critique ii) The importance of a National Perspective
iii) Understanding the concept and Implementation of Community
Colleges. He exhorted reaching out to the socially marginalized through
Community Colleges. While reviewing the Teaching-Learning Process, Fr.
Xavier asserted that the greatest privilege of a teacher is that “A
teacher is an instrument of transformation.”
Fr. Xavier expressed regret over the failure of our education system to
provide students with adequate coping strategies thereby creating
“mental giants but emotional pygmies.”
The National Perspective on Higher Education assumed focus in the next
session. Higher education has undoubtedly expanded enormously in the
last 60 years, but it has in its wake numerous challenges. Some of these
challenges brought to the anvil include the ramifications of setting up
foreign universities in India, expansion with equity, quality and
excellence in higher education, accountability of teachers, industry –
institutional linkage, among others.
The final session took cognizance of the conceptual framework and the
practical aspects of running a community college. The video clips
screened in terms of the functioning of community colleges stood
testament to the manner in which community colleges like ICRDCE empower
young people and thereby restore hope to them. The visuals left little
doubt as to how the job oriented and life skill courses offered -like
DTP, Catering, Nursing, Airconditioning and Refrigeration – have made a
difference to the lives of the concerned students who he termed
“miracles of hope”.
Fr. Xavier then went on to explore the dynamics involved in setting up a
community college and exhorted St. Xavier’s to take up the challenge of
setting up a community college in the next academic year.
Dr. (Fr.) Walter de Sá
PRINCIPAL
St. Xavier's College of Arts, Science & Commerce,
Xaviernagar, Mapusa - Goa - 403507 - INDIA.
