New Delhi, July 31 - When the Papua New Guinea foreign minister arrived in India, he made a beeline not for India's technology and commercial capitals but to a small Tamil Nadu village to learn about a new non-formal education system.

For Samul T Abal, minister of foreign affairs, trade and immigration, one of the highlights of the first ministerial trip from Papua New Guinea in 30 years was a trip down south, where he visited the Dr. Chandran Devanesan Rural Community College in Tamil Nadu's Kancheepuram district.

In fact, Xavier Alphonse, the director of the coordinating agency for community colleges -- Indian Centre for Research and Development of Community Education (ICRDCE) -- is already known to the Papua New Guinean government. He had visited Papua New Guinea last year to oversee the government's new scheme to set up a chain of community colleges.

'I actually came to know about this initiative through an American friend in Singapore... He (Xavier Alphonse) is setting up two community colleges in our electorates,' Abal told IANS in an interview, referring to his and Prime Minister Somare's constituencies.

Thirty-four Papua New Guineans have already been trained at ICRDCE, who will be working in the two pioneering community colleges that are under construction.

'After seeing those two colleges, other leaders also want the same in their provinces.