BEST PRACTICES
Best Practice - I
Student Friendly Practices
Goal:
- Online admission process.
- Online payment of fees.
- To nurture a wide range of students’ talents and skills and to promote their participation in the various co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, a large number of clubs and committees have been created in the college.
- Value education classes for students.
- Bridge Courses for students.
- Student Mentoring system.
- Two-tier students’ feedback mechanism.
- Students counseling through Counseling for Students Cell.
Before digitization, the admission process and payment of fees was a time consuming process for students and the college administration. To make the entire procedure transparent, speedy, efficient and stake-holder-friendly, both the online admission process and online fee payment have been of great help.
There exists a vast gap between the curriculum followed in school and the ones that the students are expected to learn when they enter college. Some students find it difficult to follow the class lectures when they enter into college, as a result of which they lag behind their peers. In many instances, their inability to follow class lectures result in their lack of interest in the course. As a result of which hence drop out seem to be the only option left for them. This is where bridge courses come handy.
An educational institution, not only imparts knowledge but among its many tasks, building responsible citizens for the future is also a primary responsibility. Since, students in our college come from diverse backgrounds and have been schooled in diverse curriculum, value education classes have been designed to inculcate in them irrespective of their socio-economic backgrounds, the values of community feeling, social responsibility, and leadership qualities so as to enable them to contribute to the society to where they belong.
Student feedback ensures that the stakeholders’ concerns are taken into consideration in the proper functioning of the institution. Two tier students’ feedback ensures that departmental as well as institutional concerns raised by the students are addressed.
The admission process has been computerized by the affiliating university. The online admission portal is made available to the students more than two months before the academic session begins. The portal can be accessed by students from anywhere thereby, making the process of admission much smoother. Similarly, the online fee payment through SBI e-pay system promotes transparency and ease of access both for the students and their parents. The college also has a helpline for those students who are not technologically savvy to assist them in the online admission process.
To encourage skill enhancement and refine students’ talents, there are a number of clubs, cells and committees for co-curricular activities that range from Cultural Committee, Sports Committee, Study Circle, Readers’ Club, Eco Club, etc. Keeping in mind the welfare and all round personality development of the students, our college has instituted a number of other committees like, Students’ Welfare Committee, Career Counseling Cell, Counseling for Students’ Cell, Grievance Redressal Cell, Spoken English classes, Remedial Coaching, Anti-Ragging Committee, Prevention of Sexual Harassment Cell.
Admission process and the online fee payment have become streamlined, systematic and hassle-free. The admission portal of our college being user-friendly, students can apply for admission with a lot of ease. Since the admission process is done through software, chances of error are almost nil. It has also made the entire process more transparent.
As a result of the initiatives of the various Clubs and Committees, students have been able to develop their latent talents and skills, which have enabled many of our students to win prizes and awards in various district, state and national level competitions in both the sports and the cultural categories.
Problems Encountered and Resources Required
Because of the locational disadvantage of the college, being situated in a rural area, problems encountered are primarily about the servers crashing during the admissions leading to an obstruction of admission process and fee payment due to heavy online traffic. At the same time, since a majority of the students being first generation learners, they find it difficult to keep themselves updated of the latest information which is available in our college website. Records are sometimes inaccessible and not error-free due to technical glitches. At times, stakeholders are not well versed in using online modes and need to be trained to use technology efficiently.
Best Practice - II
Contribution to environmental awareness/protection
- Rain Water Harvesting System.
- Maintaining a sprawling college ground, garden and a Herbal garden.
- Plastic free campus.
- Segregation of the Bio-degradable and non-bio degradable wastes.
- Encouraging the TS, NTS and the students to use cycle instead of cars and bikes.
- Gradually switching to LED lights in the whole campus.
- Active and vibrant Eco Club.
The College is located in a rich eco-biodiversity zone in North Bengal area with its unique flora and fauna, which must be preserved. The institution acknowledges its responsibility in educating its students in conserving the environment. Environmental education prepares the students to be responsible and environmentally conscious citizens in the future. They are made aware as to how their actions affect the environment on a daily basis and how they could address complex global environmental problems locally through communitarian initiatives.
Our college has an active and vibrant Eco Club, which has been engaged in conducting awareness programmes in the neighbouring area playing a communitarian leadership role. The campus is a plastic-free zone and has considerably reduced its consumption of single use plastic. The college canteen uses paper straws, cups and plates instead of plastic ones. The College garden has been set up in the college with the help of NSS students and the college Eco Club. NSS, NCC and Eco club students were also responsible for creating awareness on environmental issues and dangers of using plastic by organizing special lectures, posters and participating in Swachha Bharat Mission initiatives. Further, Herbal garden has been set up by the department of Geography and Eco Club, Maynaguri College. Switching to LED lights have greatly helped to reduce the electricity bill and also helped in less heat emission, a universally accepted environment-friendly practice. We also have a water harvesting mechanism at the very basic level.
Problems Encountered and Resources Required
Our college is located in an area that is ecologically rich in terms of both the flora and the fauna. Problems encountered have primarily been with regard to the response surrounding the development-environment debate. Even though the local populace exhibit a genuine affinity towards saving the green, yet they have been rendered visibly helpless in the face of the goliath like structure of the issues of Development, which are apparent in the form of building flyovers, roads at the cost of unimaginable and irreversible damages done to the environment in the surrounding areas. This rapid destruction of the natural habitat of the animals in the nearby forests has resulted in the spiraling rise in the incidences of man-animal conflicts. This has been an important issue that we have been grappling with and accordingly we are designing our campaigns for environmental awareness.