ANDHRA PRADESH PLANS COMMUNITY COLLEGES FOR FALL 2009

UNCLAS CHENNAI 000009 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON SOCI PGOV IN SUBJECT: ANDHRA PRADESH PLANS COMMUNITY COLLEGES FOR FALL 2009 ¶1. Andhra Pradesh plans to set up the South Indian state's first community colleges in time for the 2009-2010 academic year. K.C. Reddy, Chairman of the state's Department of Higher Education, confirmed media reports that Andhra Pradesh will establish U.S.-style community colleges. The state will begin by setting up three 500 student community colleges, one in each of the state's major regions, according to Reddy. He said the state would start by converting existing government and government-supported colleges into autonomous community colleges which will be independent of the existing university structure. ¶2. Reddy told post that the Chief Minister wants the first three colleges open before the start of the 2009-2010 academic year. To achieve this target, he said, his Department will adapt the U.S. model to meet local needs. In this regard, Reddy sought our assistance in setting up meetings with community college officials when he travels to the United States in February 2009. Reddy said that the state government is already working on content, curriculum, admissions procedures, and funding. But a senior contact in the Chief Minister's office was skeptical about the prospect of meeting the ambitious deadline, noting that the government will be focused on state and national elections that will be held in the spring. ¶3. Comment: Andhra Pradesh's plan to open community colleges is an encouraging development. The state has shown a willingness to look to the United States for ways to improve its educational system, as demonstrated in the U.S. influence on Hyderabad's Indian School of Business and the state's effort to open a satellite campus of Georgia Tech. It is likely that election year political distractions, the sclerotic Indian education bureaucracy, and the sheer difficulty of getting anything up-and-running in India will mean that the community colleges do not open in time for the next academic year. But, in the long run, we believe there is a good chance that Andhra Pradesh will get this valuable expansion of its education system done. End comment. SIMKIN