Heramba Chandra College is undoubtedly one of the prominent educational institutions in West Bengal. It accords priority on the quality of education as part of its legacy. The academic excellence of the students is one of its most desired areas. However, this does not encompass the entirety. Heramba Chandra College considers its goal to be much broader. It puts thrust on the overall development of its community, its students, staff and all other stakeholders. Thus, the college sincerely focuses on the academic development of the teachers, maintenance of administrative accuracy and also on its social responsibilities. The multifaceted initiatives taken by the college are strongly meant to achieve these goals. In this context, two exemplary best practices implemented by the college showcase the attempt by the college to strictly maintain the academic and administrative records and its earnest commitment to the larger society.
Best Practice I : Online Documentation of Teachers’ Activities
Heramba Chandra College has initiated a unique practice of online documentation of the daily attendance and activities of the teachers. The inherent idea is to ensure transparency and accessibility of information regarding the daily activities of the teachers.
Objectives :
Online Record of Daily Attendance : To maintain an online record of daily attendance of the teachers by themselves is the first and foremost idea.
Online Record of Daily Classes : This system acts as a good platform to keep records of daily academic performances in the classes by the teachers.
Online Record of Other Activities : The system provides scope to record other activities apart from daily classes.
Online Calculation of Academic Performance Score : Provision has been made to record daily performance data following the current norms mentioned in the Performance Based Appraisal System (PBAS) of the Career Advance Scheme (CAS) and to calculate the academic performance score automatically.
Online Application of Leave : The college has created a provision for online applications for casual leave along with automatic maintenance of this leave account.
Context :
It has been observed that retrieving data and its management is a pertinent problem. Besides, with the idea to regularise the practice of recording the daily performance, maintenance of leave accounts, and calculation of API score of the teachers an online staff portal has been planned, designed and implemented. It is an effort to assemble all necessary information in a single system.
The Practice :
All information on daily activities is stored in the ‘Staff Portal’, a portion of the college website dedicated to this purpose. Teachers record their daily arrival and departure. Teachers mention the number of allotted classes and the number of classes taken along with the reason for not taking classes, if any, and the topics taught in each class. There is also a provision to keep notes of any special activity done in the class. Teachers can also include other academic activities like checking answer scripts, preparation of question papers, uploading marks in the examination portal, etc. They can record different types of administrative jobs, like conducting or attending meetings of the department or different committees and cells and other miscellaneous jobs. Teachers are facilitated by the system of online application for casual leave.
Weblink : http://staffportal.herambachandracollege.ac.in
Constraints/Limitations Faced :
Lack of digital habit hampers regularity in the online recording of activity data. The technological glitch of the system puts certain limitations.
Evidence of Success :
It has become possible to keep data on daily attendance and activities, and an account of leaves of the teachers by themselves. They are facilitated by the automatic calculation of academic performance scores. This process of assembling the necessary information about a teaching staff in a single system has simplified administrative jobs on one hand and has reduced the use of paper on the other.
Problems encountered :
Occasional failures on the part of the teachers to record their relevant information are noticed.
Since medical leave and earned leave need approval from the governing body of the college, these types of leaves have not been covered under this online application system.
Resource Required :
Digital awareness among teachers is a prime necessity.
Problem-free functioning of the portal is necessary to store all records.
Best Practice II : Classes with Inter-disciplinary Approach
Heramba Chandra College has developed a unique practice of arranging special classes for students with a multi-disciplinary outlook. This was initiated under the aegis of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) by the Department of Bengali in 2021.
Objectives :
Multi-disciplinary Approach : The central idea of the practice is to combine lines of thought from multiple academic disciplines into one activity.
Learning in Mother Tongue : The practice considers Bengali to be the chief medium of interaction. The goal is to navigate knowledge with confidence and ease.
Learning Beyond Curriculum : The idea of this unique practice originated to encourage activities among the students beyond the curriculum. The goal is to make both teaching and learning more spontaneous and to increase the depth of knowledge.
Generating Research Ideas : Discussions catering to varied learning interests are expected to generate suitable research ideas among the students willing to do higher studies.
Mobilisation of Academic Resources : Teaching faculties may share their research experiences with others, especially with students from varied academic backgrounds. In turn, the teachers themselves are enriched, since the interaction following the lecture opens many new avenues of thought.
Context :
The basic idea of this practice is to make discussion and dialogue on varied topics from different disciplines for the entire student community of the college by the teachers from various departments. Moreover, the discussions are planned to be in Bengali, the major language of the state of West Bengal, to make it easily comprehensible, as Bengali is the mother tongue of the lion's share of college students.
The Practice :
Classes are arranged once every month having a multi-disciplinary outlook. A thought-provoking lecture is delivered by one of the teaching faculties from any department. In one of these classes the discussion centred on the analysis of geographical aspects found in Bengali literature, in another the idea was to unveil the linkage between literature and economy, in another the subject matter of ‘management’ was dealt with from a different perspective, while in another class the mathematical concept of ‘golden ratio’ was explained with special thrust on its application in various fields such as arts, architecture, geometry, and so on. The thought inherent in using Bengali as the medium of communication is that embracing the mother tongue in education holds immense potential, concepts from varied disciplines become easily understandable and ideas flow freely. ICT facilities are used for better apprehension. The discussion is followed by a truly interactive question-answer session. The forum is open not only for the students but also for all teaching and non-teaching faculties of the college.
Constraints/Limitations Faced :
Classes cannot be arranged during the period of examinations.
Evidence of Success :
Learning beyond the curriculum is a fascinating and highly complex area of study as well as one in which a lot of terrain remains to be explored. The practice successfully provides students with various brainstorming ideas and encourages them to handle their research with an interdisciplinary approach in accordance with the Indian Knowledge System. The other intention of mobilizing the college's academic resources is also truly facilitated by adopting this practice. The success of the practice is evident in its continuation.
Problems encountered :
Classes are discontinued during the period of examinations.
Since daily college hours are short, allotting a class for this special purpose sometimes becomes difficult.
Resource Required :
To have a dedicated class for this purpose in college routine.
To increase the involvement of students from varied backgrounds.
To increase the number of classes preferably using online mode.