Unique Best Practices of the Institute

Best practice-1: Capacity Building on Eco-friendly Campus

2. Goal:

• Plantation to make the campus green.
• Creating Pollution free and green campus
• Conversion of solid waste like litter, paper wste into Vermicompost
• Avoid the plastic usage

2. Context: Various activities and programmes were designed to develop eco-friendly campus and to create awareness among the stake holders on environmental consciousness.
3. Practice:

• Conducting the plantation programmes every year during the monsoon season.
• A Botanical garden is maintained to protect rare wild and endangered Medicinal plants 
• Department of Botany conducted Awareness on “Role of Moringa Tree in addressing Climate Change and Food Security on 24-02-2022.
• As a part of College activity the students participated in removal of plastic as a part of cleaning the campus.
• The Department of Botany has organized an awareness programme on the occasion of World Forest Day on 21.03.2022.
• The department of Botany conducted a Field Trip to Guvvalacheruvu forest area of Eastern Ghats, Kadapa, to collect wild and endemic plant saplings for Botanical Garden.
• Campus Cleaning by NSS units of the college as part of AzadikaAmritMohastav.

5. Evidence of success:

The College campus turned into a clean, green and pollution free eco-friendly environment.

6. Problems encountered and resources required:

• Collection of rare wild, endemic and medicinal plants from the forests.
• Minimised the use of plastic, but not completely banned.
• Funding
• Involving all stakeholders

  

Best Practice - 2:  Experiential Learning through Community Engagement

2. Objective of the Practice:

            The Government College for Men (A), Kadapa believes that learning by doing can be best experimented by involving the students in community-based activities. As community engagement is included as one of the extension activities in the curriculum for which 5 marks are to be secured, the college has identified it as an avenue for experiential learning. In addition to that, as per NEP-2020, Community Service Project (CSP) is implemented based on the motto of learning through the community engagement. 100 marks are awarded at the end of second semester. It is made it mandatory for second year students. Each student has to submit the report after completion of CSP. 

The main objectives of Experiential Learning through Community Engagement (ELCE) include:

• Involving all students in community useful productive work as part of the effort to develop them into well-rounded and socially responsive individuals.
• Utilizing the community service opportunities as avenues for developing the skills of students.
• Focusing on developing qualitative skills like empathy, leadership, service-mindedness, group dynamics, and organization skills, thus preparing them to face the challenges of life and career.
• Making students participate in the nation building process through community service-based learning.
• Contributing significantly towards addressing the developmental needs and social backwardness of the neighbourhood areas of the college.
• Creating avenues for instilling environmental sensitiveness among the students through community service activities.

The above objectives are met by streamlining the activities of the Extension wings the college like NSS (3 Units), NCC (2 Units), Youth Red Cross, a Red Ribbion Club, Scouts wing (4 Units), Eco Club and various departments (21).

3. The Context:

            As an institution with a proven track record of community commitment, the students and staff of Government College for Men (A), Kadapa have been in the forefront of several social missions in the neighbourhood and adopted villages for the past several years. For instance, every year the NSS conducts special camps in an adopted village and involve students in several developmental missions in the village.

Every student is made to join one of the extension clubs, and it is mandatory for them to participate in some form of social service. The college has three units of NSS, two units of NCC, a Red Ribbon Club, an eco-club, Women Empowerment Cell, Science Club and a Consumer Club. In addition, there are departments that organize social service activities using the expertise and resources available within the department. These Clubs include

The NSS wing of the college have significantly contributed to the development of the neighbouring areas and the adopted villages. Every NSS volunteer is expected to carry out 120 hours of social work in a year; besides, they participate in annual NSS camps conducted in villages. Besides, during occasions of natural calamities and disasters, the college community as a whole comes forward to help the affected by providing food, and other basic needs, and contributing generously for improving their conditions after the calamities.

The college used the services of Jana Vignana Vedika and Sir C.V. Raman Science Club, Kadapa in carrying out various community awareness programmes and competitions. Besides, the annual NSS camps have been conducted in villages adopted by the college in nearby villages.

4. The Practice:

            Every student involved in community work gets opportunities to develop core skills like leadership qualities, interpersonal skills, communication skills, team work skills and presentation skills while engaging in extension works. As the community service initiatives include such activities as assisting weaker students from the neighbourhood schools, the activities are likely to prune the academic skills of students involved in such activities.

During the last five years the college adopted seven villages in Kadapa District of Andhra Pradesh where the college conducted five special camps involving service activities like

• Socio-economic surveys,
• Medical camps
• Cleaning the streets
• Plantation of saplings
• Health & Hygiene Campaigns
• Open Defecation Free (ODF) and so on.
• Special awareness sessions are conducted in villages on disease prevention, hygiene, and protection of the environment.
• The college has provided substantial help to the self-help groups in villages by training them in such activities as phenol making and candle making to become microentrepreneurs.

In all these activities, students of the college participate as volunteers. Key life skills are inculcated by the students during the process. As all the students are involved in different works during the camps, the activities during camps result in developing self-reliance among the students.

5. Evidence of Success:

            Students who were actively involved in social service excelled in their academics, and their attachment to the society and their practical learning enhanced their maturity. Besides, the smartness and the skills acquired by the student leaders which enabled them to crack placement interviews easily. Another significant outcome of the programme was that the community service initiatives in general and the activity-oriented learning involved in community service, in particular improved the attendance of students and the overall examination results of the college.

• Over the last year the college engaged the students for donating 100 units of blood through two blood donation camps, which resulted in saving many lives.
• The medical camps i.e Obesity checking, grouping of blood, testing of Hemoglobin in the blood and checking of Blood Pressure conducted as part of the initiative served more than 200 beneficiaries.
•  During the last year, the social service initiatives resulted in planting more than 150 saplings in the neighbouhood areas, adopted villages and in the campus.
• The college won one awards for community service during the same period.
• Regular cleaning of monuments in the museum through NCC wing enabled the Museum Clean.
• All the students who participated in the NCC activities developed proficiency in Hindi language by interacting with their north Indian counterparts during camps and community service activities.
• Participation in trekking, paragliding, parasailing, mountaineering, and Thal Sainik Camps, Republic Day Camps, Army Attachment Camp, and training in Indian Military Academy, Officer’s Training Academy, and Combined Annual Training camps which also included community service activities, enhanced the endurance and other life skills of the NCC cadets.
• Programmes like leadership camps and youth exchange programme enhanced their employability skills.

6. Problems Encountered and Resources Required:

• Primarily, the number restrictions in the clubs (NSS, NCC, YRC, etc) available in the college was the main obstacle to accommodate all the students. The problem was resolved by strengthening departmental extension wings.
• Secondly, the interventions in the adopted villages were most often limited to the days of the annual special camps. This has resulted in fewer follow up activities.
• Thirdly, the scarce financial support from government agencies for developmental activities in the adopted villages was a handicap in initiating many development activities.
• Further, the social engagement initiatives could not penetrate deep into problems like poverty and health issues faced by the people in adopted villages.

7. Notes:

• Experiential Learning through Community Engagement was beneficial in two ways: students became socially sensitive, and they learned certain key skills while doing their mandatory social service.
• Social engagement, particularly in rural areas, enhanced their empathy, and consciousness of the living conditions of such groups like people from remote villages and the urban poor.
• The problems encountered by the children of neighbouring government schools and aided schools were recognized during field works conducted by certain clubs, and many departments in the college came forward to help them by involving their students in teaching the basics to the schools children.