PERFORMANCE OF THE INSTITUTION IN ONE AREA DISTINCTIVE TO ITS PRIORITY AND THRUST

The area distinctive to the vision of the college is ‘Women Empowerment through Higher Education.’ In the process of attaining the vision, emphasize is being given to provide quality education to girl students irrespective of caste, creed, religion & diverse socioeconomic status. Admission (Online) of students is done completely on the basis of merit adhering to the circulars and Schedules issued by the Higher Education Department, Govt. of West Bengal and the parent University (University of Calcutta). The institution stringently follows the regulations of the government regarding reservation policy. The classes, auditorium, playground, canteen, NCC, NSS & Sports Unit are indeed an eclectic mix of students from various strata of the society. However, their diverse socioeconomic backgrounds do not stand in the way of their uniform sense of belongingness as a member of Basanti Devi College family.

Student centric methods, such as experiential learning, participative learning and problem-solving methodologies are used for enhancing learning experiences of Students. The college faculty uses laptops, LCD projectors, Wi-Fi and smart boards in the classrooms to make learning more interesting for the students. Teachers of Communicative English Department make use of the language lab to enhance language learning through specific software for improving Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing (LSRW) skills of the students. Teachers & Students use NPTEL platform for accessing online content in their respective fields & update their knowledge. Every year all the departments organize Enrichment Programs for students. Every year college provides financial support to the needy students, several prizes are given to the students for their excellent academic performance. Our college provides Lifts, Toilets, Wheelchairs and alternative paths to stairs for differently able students.

Apart from the University Curriculum, the college offers Certificate and Diploma courses for students with 30 or more contact hours to enhance their skill. Pass percentage of students is almost 100.In 2020-2021 about 60 students joined higher studies after completing their graduation from the college.

The college provides free counseling to the students to resolve their internal and external challenges and make them comfortable in expressing their academic, social, personal issues etc. Placement Cell of the College organizes various Career Counseling programs to generate awareness among the students about various career opportunities available to them.

The Annual Cultural Competition, Annual College Social, Annual College Sports , State/ Institution level essay & Poster competition, College magazine, Departmental magazine, Wall magazine, Paper presentation, group discussion, debate, various cultural activities provides an opportunity to bring out the talents of the students .Thus college helps to equip & empower students with relevant knowledge, competence & creativity to face challenges.

The College ever since its inception has relentlessly strived towards its mission statement of transforming students into a sensitive and responsible youth force who have social commitments towards the larger section of the society.Several Community outreach Program by Students &Ex- Students of our College were organized by NSS, NCC, Rotaract Club. The College takes initiatives in organizing various events and programs for molding the students to become responsible citizens by sensitizing them to the constitutional obligations: values, rights, duties and responsibilities of the citizens.

Our College being exclusively a girls’ college is always very keen on providing safety and security of students and staff in the campus and takes necessary measures to raise awareness regarding gender equality. Self Defense Course was organized for students to build their confidence & make them self- reliant.

The College has Internal Complaints Committee to redress grievances of students and has authority to take necessary actions regarding the same. The college has zero tolerance for sexual harassment of women in the institution. The college also has Anti –Ragging Cell which helps to prevent any incident of ragging or harassment of the students. To ensure protection for students & Staff, the entire campus is under the surveillance of CCTV cameras with an overall viewing facility at the Principal’s office.

The college has framed well defined and viable strategic goals for creation of a Green Campus & social sensitization programs to help students to dream & achieve a sustainable and healthy environment in and outside the college Campus. The college has been recognized as a Swachhta Action Plan (SAP) Institution in the year 2020 by Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education (MGNCRE), Department of Higher Education, Government of India.. The college also received First Prize under the category of Shara Poribesh (Best Environment) by Just News in Swaraswati Puja, 2020. Students conduct field survey on various Environments related issues like- Impact of deforestation in your locality, which type of Pollution you found in your locality, Environmental degradation & its impact on Public health, Floral Diversity of Kolkata and its benefit towards the Society.

The college is intent on the holistic development of the students and hence, the objectives are to chisel them into sensitive, responsible, uncorrupted citizens, imbued with virtues like universal brotherhood, forbearance & respect and train them "to strive, to seek, to find and never to yield."

The distinctive feature of our institution is its Teaching–Learning & Evaluation process. Apart from Conventional classroom instruction teachers use various methods to make the students active learners and thus make the process more learner centric. Various departments organize workshops, inter active lecture session, departmental Quiz, group discussion on important issues, power point presentation for students, Field Survey( deptt of Sociology, Human Rights &Environmental Science), Visit to industrial plant( Deptt. of Chemistry & Physics),Film/documentary show(Deptt of English), Visit to Important Historical places within the state(Deptt of History), term–paper (Deptt. of Economics),Students Wall Magazines(Deptt. of Bengali, English, Sanskrit, History, Philosophy, Political Science, Education, Psychology, Women’s Studies, Human Rights, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics),on the job training/Internship (Deptt. of Communicative English) & Educational Tour(almost all departments). Teachers are well-versed in ICT-enabled teaching-learning methods; they prepare PPTs for the students & uploaded the e-content on the college website under Learning Management Systems. During New Normal all the faculty members are taking online classes regularly & mentoring the students academically & psychologically. Teachers also make the learners introduced with several online digital repositories for lectures, course materials, and digital libraries. Scanned documents of different texts, manuscripts are also provided to the learners. Needs of slow learners & advanced learners are met with.

The external examination is conducted by the University at the end of each semester. The college is authorized to conduct internal assessments & Tutorials/Practical’s. The marks of Class attendance, internal assessment& Tutorials are sent to the University online through University Portal. The schedules for Internal as well as other activities as per CBCS guidelines are categorically mentioned in the academic calendar and are conducted accordingly .The answer scripts of internal examinations are shown to the students and necessary suggestions are given by the teachers so that students feel confident and can do better in their Semester end examinations. This year due to COVID-19 University Final Examinations, 2020 were conducted online through colleges. University Question Papers of different programs were sent to the colleges through University portals & the colleges uploaded each question papers in the college website for students as per examinations schedule. The students downloaded the question papers from college website & gave their exams. After completing their exams within time, they submit their answer scripts online to the college.

Evidence of Success:

• 36 University Rank holders in last six years (2013-2018).
• Average Pass percentage in University Final Examinations (2013-2019)- B.A. HONS. (97.42%) & B.Sc. HONS. (85.40%).
• About 75% of our pass out students joins Higher Education.
• Many of our students received First Class First Rank in their University PG Programs.
• Many of our Ex-students are University Professors, College Professors, School Teachers, Administrative officers & Ph.D. Scholars of reputed Universities, National as well as International.