RONO HILLS, Mar 26: Eighteen faculty members from seven Northeastern states attended a weeklong faculty development programme (FDP) on rural community engagement, organized at Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) from 20 to 26 March.
Jointly organized by the National Council of Rural Institutes and the NSS cell and the department of social work of the RGU, the FDP programme primarily focused on the development of curriculum for transacting rural community engagement in higher education.
The participants were taken for field visits to Hija village and Lekha and Tomru villages as part of rural immersion programme in the FDP.
NCRI Academic Consultant Ashwin Kumar Sr, NIRD Director Prof RM Pant, RGU Department of Mass Communication Assistant Professor Moji Riba, Department of Education Prof PK Acharya, NIRD Prof Kanak Haloi and Allahabad University Prof RBS Verma acted as the resource persons for the FDP.
During the inaugural programme, RGU Vice Chancellor Prof Tamo Mibang urged the participants to start framing courses relevant to rural studies “with focus on practical component.”
Prof Verma emphasized on social, economic and environmental concerns of sustainability in rural areas.
In the valedictory function, RGU Registrar Prof Tomo Riba highlighted the plight of the rural communities, caused especially by migration of rural youths to urban areas in search of employment opportunities.
Finance Officer Prof Amitava Mitra highlighted various policies of successive governments in leveraging the rural sector.
NCRI Academic Consultant Kumar shared details about the two recently launched programmes on rural community engagement initiated by the NCRI – the Mahatma Gandhi Grameen Prabandh Vidya Abhiyan, and the Mahatma Gandhi Grameen Vidya Abhiyan as National Rural Management Education Campaign and National Rural Engagement Campaign.
Faculty members of the department of social work and MSW students actively cooperated in organizing the FDP and participated in developing the national framework of higher education for rural engagement.
The FDP was coordinated by John Gangmei and Gomar Basar, who are NSS programme officers of the university’s NSS cell.
