Ch 9Co-operative Education and Training — Class 12 Co-operation, concept-first.

A co-operative society is owned and controlled by ordinary people. Its members elect the managing committee, its committee members frame policy, and its paid staff carry the work forward.

Co-operative education means spreading knowledge and awareness about co-operation — its meaning, values, principles, aims, working and benefits — among members of co-operative societies and among the…

Co-operative education and training are not optional extras — they are essential to the very survival and success of the movement. The main reasons are set out below.

In India, co-operative education and training are provided through a connected, three-tier structure that runs from a national apex body down to the district and society level. Broadly:

At the national level, co-operative training is organised through the National Council for Co-operative Training (NCCT), which functions under the National Co-operative Union of India.

The National Co-operative Union of India (NCUI) is the apex organisation of the entire co-operative movement in India.

At the state level in Maharashtra, the apex body responsible for co-operative education and training is the Maharashtra State Co-operative Union (in Marathi, the Maharashtra Rajya Sahakari Sangh).

Education and training only matter if they actually reach the ordinary member and the working staff of small societies scattered across a state.