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Institutional Best Practices

The Institution takes pride in many of its practices. Given below are two of them, one each from the spheres of Teaching-Learning-Examinations and Extension Services.

01

Adhyaksha: Online Examination Management System

Objectives of the Practice

To develop and deploy an e-system to manage the entire student evaluation and related processes which will achieve the following:

  • Facilitate easy and effective maintenance of and access to critical information with regard to the complete process of student evaluation including internal and external assessment.

  • Maintain repositories of versions of syllabi.

  • Easily generate nominal rolls and keep track of student results with respect to both internal and external assessment.

  • Make the recording of Internal Assessment marks easier and consistent with the manual processes, with accountability being maintained online.

  • Enable faculty to easily track student performance.

  • Generate Result Sheets and Mark Sheets after examinations.

  • Enable special services like reprinting of mark sheets in specific cases and archiving of historical data.

  • Enable various levels of users of the system, including the CoE, Secretary, Principal, staff at the Office of the CoE, HoDs and teaching faculty to view, add or modify information only appropriate to their level of authority.

  • Seamlessly maintain critical workflow processes online.

  • Automatically calculate and present analytical information about student progress along with indicative information about social and economic background of the student, etc.

  • Automatically analyze and present information on performance of students in subjects taught by a particular teacher, to serve as a feedback for the teacher herself.

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Evidence of success

  • Computerization has incredibly speeded up the entire process and minimizes human errors. Speedily publishing results has become easier than before. 

  • A comprehensive record of each student’s academic performance is centrally maintained in this way. Data redundancy and duplication errors have been eradicated.

  • All manual processes have been converted to electronic processes though the process workflows and levels of authority of people have been maintained in the system.

  • All calculations for CIA and results are automated, thus reducing the overheads and margin of error for the faculty and the CoE’s office.

  • The manual processes of CIA preparation and submission have been done away with, improving the efficiency of the process and making CIA error-free.

  • The data analysis services provided by Adhyaksha have provided the College with insights into student and faculty performance and thereby helped identify students who need additional support.

02

Single-Teacher-School Programme

Objectives of the Practice

  • To motivate rural children to pursue their education.

  • To motivate parents of rural children to continue their child’s education so that dropouts are reduced.

  • To sensitize the students of the College to the problems of rural children and the importance of educating them.

  • To inculcate an appreciation in the students of the College for the opportunities they have that others do not.

 

The Context

Education remains a dream for thousands of children in our country. Swami Vivekananda said, “India lives in her villages and her salvation lies in their empowerment.” While the children in urban and semi-urban areas have easier access to education, the children in rural and extremely remote areas have absolutely no access to education due to lack of infrastructure. They tend to stay away from education due to other reasons as well, such as domestic compulsions to go for daily work and social discrimination. In this scenario it becomes imperative for the privileged among society to remove the hurdles that rural children face and to enable them to undergo a wholesome education and achieve a better quality of life.

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The Practice

Swami Vivekananda Rural Development Society (SVRDS) runs Single Teacher Schools for students in the remote and backward villages in Tamil Nadu, aligning itself with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme of the Government of India. It is an exercise undertaken to reduce the dropout rate in schools and to also increase the enrolment rate. All students and faculty members of Meenakshi College visit about 60 Single Teacher Schools every year in the districts of Thiruvallur, Kanchipuram and Chengalpattu. About 60 buses are arranged by the College Management for these visits which have become exercises in large scale logistics management as well. There are about 140 teachers and 3000 students who take part in this exercise every year. Activities are planned for the students to ensure that they benefit from the interaction. The faculty and students take with them many useful gifts for the children like lunch boxes, seat mats and snacks, and also for the school teachers and the school itself. Enriching games and mini talent shows are organized and prizes are distributed to the school children to help them discover their talents and enthuse them. This practice of the College is part of the fight against illiteracy and morbidity. The annual visits to the Single Teacher Schools expose students to the plight of rural children and kindle in them the spirit of service and sharing. The Meenakshi College fraternity interacts with the rural children, teaches them songs, organizes interesting games to entertain them, organizes talent shows among them and motivates them to take education seriously.

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The Campus Lions Clubs, affiliated to Lions Clubs International, play a very active role in organizing these Single Teacher School Visits.

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Evidence of Success

  • The feedback from SVRDS is that the enrollment rate in these schools has gone up significantly ever since Meenakshi College started patronizing and visiting these schools three years ago. In fact every year, the College witnesses an increase in the number of children enrolled in the schools during the visit. 

  • The children in the schools enjoy the interaction with their elder sisters from Meenakshi

  • College, and get enthused to pursue studies and make their dreams come true. Many are the children who express lofty ideals and superior ambitions to grow up and make a difference to the world around them.

  • The students and faculty of the College look forward to these visits that provide a peep-hole into the lives of our rural children and the conditions in which they live and study. There is deep sense of inner satisfaction that all faculty and students derive from these visits, for there is the feeling of having touched innocent lives in a positive way. These interactions also increase the sense of social commitment and an appreciation and gratitude for the privileged lives people lead in the cities. They give the opportunity for College students to be grateful for what they have and to give back to society as much as they can.

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