Why educational institutions must engage students in community service

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They are morally accountable to create value for society through engaging their students, teachers and resources in the process of social transformation. Nonetheless, community engagement across India is not much seen or practised. This is owing to the enormous pressure on schools and colleges that confines them to routine teaching and learning processes of the subjects and contents in the curriculum. The impulse to get benefits out of mapping educational goals with community engagement is poor among students and educators, despite the repeated attempts from regulatory bodies and governments to ensure their participation in the community’s well-being. The National Service Scheme (NSS), a traditional method of connecting students with the community, has been lost due to the coaching culture gaining importance. Students are exhausted from routine learning and coaching and seldom think of others. Community engagement is a systematic process by which the youth become involved with and constructively contribute their time, energy, and efforts to their environments with a sense of purpose. Students and educational institutions must believe that an issue that affects society impacts their lives in some way and work with public, government, and non-government organisations to create sustainable visions for the future. Involving students can help them understand and address issues that affect people’s well-being and achieve sustainable outcomes, and equitable decision-making processes that deepen relationships and trust between the educational institutions and communities. Educational institutions should evolve different approaches for community engagement. Students — individually or with their teachers— can conduct research to ascertain community needs and involve themselves in assessing and developing ideas for inclusive and sustainable development. Students can develop material to educate communities about their socio-economic issues and improve their employment skills. Student volunteers can assist the government’s literacy drive and help the public be aware of human and constitutional rights. They can help small vendors and micro and small-scale entrepreneurs improve their business skills and train the community in energy saving and environment conservation. Much can be done to educate the community to access health insurance schemes of both the state and union governments. Students can also engage with migrant labours and help them be aware of their health status, and the availability of health facilities in and around their workplace. Educational institutions can offer public access to their libraries free of cost, as is done by many U.S. universities. Community engagement helps students develop empathy, a sense of belonging and empowers them to take action. Research has shown that students who are involved in community activities are able to adapt easily to diversity, develop leadership skills, and engage in critical self-reflection. They become socially responsible, compassionate, and disciplined. Beyond the benefits to individual students, such activities offer educational institutions greater acceptance among the public, build goodwill and reputation. The UGC Guidelines for Institutional Development Plan 2024 and Social Responsibility and Community Engagement in India 2.0, 2022, respectively call for aligning academic values with social expectations, ensuring relevance and existence. Nonetheless, a well-tailored manual facilitating community engagement is the need of the hour, to execute programmes in a systematic manner. For successful implementation, the support of managements and teachers is indispensable. Educational institutions should establish an Office of Community Engagement (OCE) to plan and implement impactful activities that bring positive changes and help attain the UN SDGs. The writer is Professor and Principal Faculty of Management Sciences, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research. sjesiah@gmail.com higher education / universities and colleges / university / The Hindu Education Plus / education / community-led / students / careers Terms & conditions  |  Institutional Subscriber Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.