A small initiative and a promise made to villagers to educate their children have grown significantly over the past eight years.
The nine-year-old St Xavier’s University has so far adopted six villages. Each student of the institution is required to spend 60 hours during their four-year degree course in the villages, teaching and interacting with villagers and their children.
University students visit the villages regularly, while school dropouts and women from the villages are invited to the university to participate in various projects.
The interaction, a university official said, enriches both groups.
“There is an education within the four walls of a classroom, but practical exposure is a more effective way of educating them,” said Father Felix Raj, the vice-chancellor of St Xavier’s University in New Town.
“The students get a broader view of the country and understand the strengths and weaknesses of rural life. They realise the fortunes and facilities they have that rural children do not,” he said.
Father Felix Raj at another interaction
For the children in the villages, interaction with the “didis and dadas” sparks aspirations to study beyond school and see more.
“It works as a motivation.... Seeing them, they want to join the university,” the vice-chancellor said.
The university-to-village and village-to-university programme began in 2018, a year after the university was established.
Students from the university teach in local government-aided schools, at learning centres, and visit families. They conduct sports and games for the children on the university campus.
In one village school, the students have started a library. In another, they take their laptops to train them in computers.
From initially working with two villages, the university now engages with six, and many more have expressed interest in joining the programme.
“When one village realises the improvement in the standard of education of its children, other villages approach us, and the initiative grows and expands,” said Father Felix Raj.
The university is standing by the promise it had made to local leaders when it started the campus — to do its best, especially for the children.
Over the years, the work has stretched beyond the children. It includes women and will soon include school dropouts to make them employable.
The university’s Centre for Social Outreach programme conducted a tailoring programme for the women in the villages.
At the end of the course, each woman was given a stitching machine to be able to earn a livelihood by themselves.
The centre will soon start a certificate course in electronics, repairing of mobile phones and air-conditioners and a beautician course.
The classes will be held at the university so that “there is an atmosphere of education”.
“The certificate courses should make them employable. Simultaneously, we
will teach them English so that when they go out for a job, they can understand, speak and read in the language,” Father Felix Raj said.