Our Two Best Practices:
Two Best Practices 2019 - 2020:
The Annasatra Prakalpa (provision of mid-day meal to college students):
Objectives: This flagship feeding scheme of Ramananda College is designed for improving the nutritional standing of poor students belonging to economically backward and underprivileged sections to increase enrolment and retention for literacy improvement in higher education in the vicinity of the Institute as most of them are first generation learners. This Scheme follows a set of principles such as the meal should only be a supplement to the home diet, recurrent change in the menu to avoid monotony, use of regionally available foods and implementation of the standard cooking practices to skip loss of nutrients during the course of cooking.
Context: Ramananda College is situated in a backward socio-economic belt where many students coming from low socio-economic background are forced to discontinue higher studies as they fail to bear the expenses of their basic needs. The students, coming from families with many siblings, often have to work for fulfilling basic family needs. Insufficient transport facilities again result in nutritional challenges for students residing in remote areas as they spend long hours to attend college. The girl students often fall sick in the college campus due to lack of food and nutrition as providing nutritional food and education to girl child is yet to be considered as priority in many of the local families. Considering such issues, the Institute has taken up this initiative for regularising students’ attendance, retaining and helping them concentrate on their curriculum by showing a little humane treatment and understanding about the family backgrounds of the students.
The Practice: Neither a student who is hungry, nor a student who is ill can be expected to learn. On this premise this holistic initiative to augment the nutritional and educational status of the needy students willing to continue higher studies was taken up by the Institute four years back in 2016. This practice involves a cooked noon meal programme for providing nutritional support that can be availed free of cost on all working days by any of the presently enrolled college students belonging to economically backward class or underprivileged background. The cooks in the hostels are responsible for preparing these meals maintaining standard cooking practices to avoid loss of nutrients during the course of cooking. Funding for this scheme fully comes from voluntary contributions by the teaching and non-teaching staff of the college, alumni and some philanthropists. The Annasatra Committee consisting of teaching and non-teaching staff members, approved by GB and headed by the principal, manages the initiative. This committee is in the charge of closely monitoring and coordinating day-to-day chores involved in running this scheme. The students availing this opportunity need to enrol their names within 11 a.m. each day. In spite of having a provision of providing food to 100 students approximately the scheme has managed to provide food to 50-60 students per day during each academic session. The meal supplements to the home diet. The Annasatra Prakalpa tries to supply at least one-third of the total energy requirement, and half of the protein need by providing cereals, pulses, oils and fats, leafy vegetables, non-leafy vegetables, soya chunks etc. The initiative follows a routine of serving soyabeans at least thrice a week and mixed vegetables on the other days. During special occasions meal with fish or egg is also served. Any two of our teachers taste the cooked food every day before serving it to the students. The scheme has a dedicated bank account for itself and all transactions thereof are regularly audited in Annual Financial Audit. The scheme has played a critical role in a subtle way in eliminating ‘classroom hunger’ and facilitating the universalisation of higher education, reflected in marginally increased enrolment in courses, increased attendance in classes, improved performance of students in classes in terms of better attention span and academic progress. A clear chain of responsibility and accountability among teachers and the community has made the transformative potential of the scheme visible.
Evidence of Success: Annasatra Prakalpa has been proved to be a big achievement as food assistance programme in the Institute as the students availing this scheme have done remarkably well in 2019-2020 University Examination as well as average percentage of pass-outs has comparatively shoot up. Health and education are two aspects that the country has been working on consistently through various efforts. This scheme, a significant initiative through private efforts, has consistently improved the position of students in higher education in this socio-economically underdeveloped segment in terms of health, education and nutrition resulting in increased enrolment, retention and attendance in the Institute and simultaneously impacting on nutrition of students in regular classes as well as parental aspiration of acquiring education for their children. The students, considering it difficult to continue higher studies without having proper food, now attend college more regularly and can aptly concentrate on their curriculum and classroom activities. Moreover, it’s a matter of pride and honour that not even a single case of unwellness related to Annasatra Prakalpa has been reported during the last four years since its inception. This speaks volumes about the keen eye for quality & hygiene that has been meticulously maintained, despite severe budgetary deficits.
Problems Encountered and Resource Required: Four years have passed since Annasatra Prakalpa became a part of the daily routine in the Institute. In this passage of time, procedures have stabilised but still we face crumbling challenges to provide food to more students as the initiative has not yet received any financial assistance from none of the Government agencies. The voluntary contributions are not enough given the number of students the scheme should cover, as well as inflation causing the price of food items to skyrocket. More assistance from the stakeholders in the college, along with aid from the state/central governments would be a welcome step.
Needless to mention, more volunteers (from the student body and the faculty) are required to constantly monitor the kitchens to ensure the quality and hygiene of the ingredients used along with the cooked food and supervise the cooking process to avoid loss of nutrients during the course of cooking.
Notes: The Institutes specifically being located in the socio-economically backward regions of the state can adopt this best practice of serving Mid-Day Meal to economically backward and deprived students in higher education to improve enrolment, attendance and retention. Objectives and provisions of the scheme, modes of continuous financing, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are to be set aptly before implementing to avoid sudden fund deficit, fake enrolments and maintain quality and hygiene of the ingredients and the cooked meal. The cost of cooking, infrastructure development, transportation of food grains and payment of honorarium to cooks and helpers involve a huge funding. On this premise, we suggest a steering cum monitoring committee to be formed at least at the university level to approve and monitor the programme, conduct impact assessments, coordinate with central/state governments to provide policy advice as the possibilities of this programme far outweigh the problems involved in its operation.
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Extension Programme for local community development:
Objectives:
Ramananda College, being an institution of higher education, has taken up some important Extension activities encouraging its students to
Context: Institute-neighbourhood village community, located in a backward socio-economic region, has been struggling with the challenges of uncleanliness, unhygienic and malnutrition conditions, open defaecation and lack of awareness relating to health and diseases.
Being primarily dependent on Government aided schools, most of the students herein either has no access or lack of access to digital learning, computer education, non-academic books. Education for children becomes the second priority in many of the families where children are forced for income generation activity for their survival. The vernacular schools lead to poor English communication resulting in unwillingness to continue higher education.
On this premise, the College naturally promotes institute-neighbourhood community development as well as sensitize students towards community needs and aims to facilitate a wider spread of education and awareness within the society through various extension programs organised by NCC, NSS, different departments and the Student Forum of the college.
The Practice: Initiating extension activities, the Institute has made a noteworthy contribution to the society and environment. It has been offering a teaching internship to students of different departments, who share their knowledge and learning experience with students in nearby schools and common people in the neighbouring areas. Students from departments of Bengali, Sanskrit and Nutrition volunteered to teach students at different schools in the town. Laboratory based departments like Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, Botany, Zoology, Nutrition, Physiology and Geography invited school students to their laboratories for demonstration cum hands on learning session, led by UG and PG students using experiments, instruments and specimen, on topics relevant to their curriculum.
The NSS Units of the college organize Special Annual Camps funded by affiliating university and Ramananda College in nearby villages and local slum areas i.e. Chowgan and Dwarika Gosainpur Gram Panchayet areas, Ward No-III under Bishnupur Municipality, Panshiuli and Mansa villages under the Belsuliya Gram panchayat and adopted village Abantika for creating awareness about health, open defaecation and sanitation through cleaning drains and roads and conducting seminars, social awareness on superstitions, child marriage, women empowerment, COVID-19 etc. and environmental awareness through seminars. Tree plantation, door to door survey by questionnaire and distribution of leaflets for health and educational awareness, health check-up camps including general health check-up by doctors, blood pressure check, blood group test, ECG of aged villagers are also arranged. All NSS volunteers, members of the Students’ Union, several teachers and non-teaching staff usually carry out the noble responsibility of continuing these extension activities regularly.
NSS and NCC cadets regularly observe the days of social importance like World Forest Day, National Voters Day, International Day for Disaster Management, International Mother Language Day and so on. They organise social awareness programmes on World AIDS Day, Anti-tobacco Day and International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and perform regular cleaning and sanitisation activities to maintain cleanliness and hygiene in the surroundings.
In synchronisation with NSS and NCC units, the departments of Bengali, Economics and Geography have conducted spelling correction programmes, socio-economic surveys of all the 19 wards and national map quiz for schools in Bishnupur Municipality respectively. The Women Cell consistently sensitize the surroundings to gender bias and women empowerment ensuring an inclusive and equal academic environment. The Students’ Forum organises Blood Donation camps. Organising these extension activities regularly, the College strengthens College-Neighbourhood-Community network.
Evidence of Success: All these intellectual interventions in the community’s living problems have been greatly successful in extending knowledge and other institutional resources to sensitize the community on issues relating to health, literacy, environmental and legal awareness, agriculture etc. Spelling correction programmes make the common people aware of correct spellings of words used in advertisements, signboards and so on. Socio-economic surveys explore the overall socio-economic condition and problems of Bishnupur Municipal area. Participating in national map quiz, the students of 14 schools have exposed to reading topographical maps.
Teaching internship by college students provide school students with the opportunity to experience new and advanced teaching methods, exposure to communicative English, access to digital learning, hands-on computer education and several non-academic as well as academic reference books that they are not exposed to on a daily basis. On the other hand, college students gain practical teaching experience inclusive of preparing lessons and teaching material and acquire an understanding of child psychology and the process of growth of the cognitive faculty.
All these initiatives develop student-community relationship and shape students into responsible citizens booming with leadership skill, sense of discipline, patriotism, spirit of adventure, ideal of self service and self-confidence through an educational process.
Problems Encountered and Resource Required: During this long journey of extension programmes, the Institute has faced the challenges of integrating formal and non-formal education and out of college learning processes. Reaching out to the larger sections of adults, several socio-economic and cultural groups using institutional resources adhering to the university system and especially deprived groups for the purpose of equalization of educational opportunities is a daunting challenge. The institute encounters problem in handling issues relating to literacy, child-labour, drugs and AIDS / HIV, gender issues with stress on gender equity, human rights education, consumer rights issues, communal harmony, cultural integration, self-employment generation and use of technology appropriate to the society.
Needless to mention, continuing all these programmes throughout the year and extending such activities more at the grassroot level for vulnerable groups requires more support and funding from the state/central governments as well as private or public-private initiatives.
Note: Working outside the college campus and college hours with diversified social groups of people expects a more inclusive curriculum adjusting education programmes at the grassroot level, handling issues on communal harmony and peace education, environment, panchayats and local development, health education for the community, women’s empowerment and gender studies. On this premise, we suggest universities of backward segments to initiate change in the policies and procedures so as to make the university courses more accessible to the adult learners and establish a new relationship between the institute and government organizations/NGOs/Civil Societies/NGO networks or other professional bodies to address social issues.