Best Practice 1

1. Title of the Practice:

Faculty and Alumni Scholarship for the less privileged

2. Objective of the Practice

  • To provide an opportunity for the first generation of graduation learners from rural areas to pursue their higher studies.
  • To prevent the dropouts after class 12 and support their continuation in higher studies.
  • Educating rural youth can significantly impact on the development of employment opportunities among the rural youth.
  • To provide employability skill oriented education to increase the employment and income opportunities to the rural students.

3. The Context

  • The majority of the students coming to our college are from BPL families or first generation graduates.
  • They cannot afford to pay the fees for higher education.
  • Crossland College supports the less privileged college dropout rural students by providing financial assistance through various scholarship schemes.
  • Most girl students in rural areas do not get an opportunity to travel from distant places and get higher education. Our college gives preference to girl students with a complete scholarship.

4. The Practice

  • Crossland College provides quality education to the rural youth by providing different types of scholarships through the pool of the faculty members, alumni, PTA and the college management. There is a Faculty scholarship with the contribution from the members of the teaching faculty and the alumni contribute through an alumni association fund. Most of the students get a complete fee waiver for all 3 years. The lecturer in charge of the alumni association and the principal of the college decide the list of eligible students.

5. Evidence of Success

  • Admission of poor students to degree courses.
  • The students studied in the college improve their academic performance during the three years.
  • The move towards either higher education or getting placement.

6. Problems encountered and resources required

  • The college is managed with limited resources.
  • The support of the existing resources at the college cannot be continued on a long term basis.
  • Reaching out to a large number of students is difficult.
  • To reach out to large number of people, more funding is needed from well-wishers to continue the scholarship schemes.
 

Best Practice 2

1. Title of the Practice:

Free Breakfast Scheme

2. Objectives of the Practice :

  • To reduce absenteeism among students
  • To cater to the hungry students
  • To improve the alertness of students in classes

3. The Context :

Our students come from remote villages and some of them walk for about 5 kilometers to reach the bus stop. They start from home as early as 6.30 am. Many of them come from home empty stomach. In many of their homes, either food is not available or food won’t be ready at that time. They also can’t afford to have any pocket money. Having sufficient money for the bus fare itself is a luxury for them. They come straight to classes without having any food in the morning. We found that many of them would be tired and feel sleepy in class due to their hunger. Some of them wouldn’t attend the last hour class as they find it difficult to sit in the class and pay attention to the class. Realizing the difficult situation of the students, a proposal was shared with the alumni in one of the meetings to do something to help them.

4. The Practice :

The need to provide some breakfast to the deserving students was presented in a meeting with the alumni in Bangalore. The response was very positive. One of the alumni volunteered to contribute Rs. 50000 as an initial corpus to kick start the scheme. With that assurance, an understanding was reached with a nearby canteen to provide some breakfast items like idlis, buns, etc. at a concessional price. Initially, students who wanted the free breakfast were asked to give their names. Later, the concerned class teachers finalized the list of students who would benefit from this scheme. Every day, a few volunteers would collect the breakfast items from the nearby canteen and bring them to the college canteen. A register was kept in the canteen and whoever took the breakfast had to sign in the register every day. The students have to bring their own plate to serve breakfast. A teacher monitors the working of the scheme and also takes care of the payment. About 60 students (that is one fourth of the total strength of the college) get free breakfast every day.

5. Evidence of Success :

In a short span of time, the students started to attend the classes with more seriousness. The absenteeism during the last hour was also reduced drastically. There were a lot of goodwill from the students towards the college and the alumni.

6. Challenges and Resources Required

This scheme has to continue as students continue to travel from far off villages. The initial contribution from the alumni may be sufficient for a few months. If it has to be sustainable, it is difficult to depend on the alumni alone. Therefore, other sources of contribution have to be explored. In addition to that, students have to be asked to pay a nominal amount to make it a sustainable scheme