BHUBANESWAR: The State Government will reintroduce the proctorial system in degree colleges to regularly monitor the academic progress of students and resolve their problems.
After a video-conference with principals of non-government and aided colleges on Wednesday, Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo said under the system, a faculty member will take on the role of a proctor, provide support and counselling to a group of students and address their academic problems.
“The system which existed in colleges earlier is not in practice anymore. We will reintroduce it to help students improve their academic performance,” said Sahoo. He said the system will be reintroduced in all 1,048-degree colleges across the State for which college principals will have to submit an action-taken report to the Department by August 31.
Sahoo further said the decision aims to improve teaching standards and academic performance of students in the higher education sector. “Apart from introducing a model syllabus, we have made seven-hour duty for lecturers and 75 per cent attendance for students mandatory in all colleges. Smart classes will start functioning in 101 colleges from this year for which work has already been completed in 60 colleges. Each college will be provided `6 lakh to develop smart classes,” he said.
Language laboratories, smart classes and spoken tutorials will be set up in all degree colleges in a phased manner and roadblocks to better infrastructure like land-related issues and faculty crunch will be urgently addressed, the Minister added.
He stressed on improving infrastructure in both aided and non-government colleges to help them get NAAC accreditation with better grades and funds under Centre’s Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).
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Many aided colleges are facing land hurdles to develop infrastructure. Priority will be give to address the issue to provide better academic facilities to students in the colleges,” he said adding, steps are also being taken address the issue of faculty crunch in these colleges.
Smart move
● Classrooms will be equipped with modern day audio visual systems
● Classes on various subjects will be recorded
● Students can access those later to clear doubts
● Data will be stored in a common database that can be accessed easily in other colleges with same facility
● Smart classes will start functioning in 101 colleges from this year
● Work for smart classes completed in 60 colleges
`6 lakh
for each college to develop smart classes