Best Practice # 1
Empowering Excellence: Reward and Recognition
Strategies for Enhancing Cognitive Power and Building Self-Confidence
Objectives: The primary goals of this practice are to enhance students' cognitive abilities for academic decision-making and boost their confidence. It aims to create a sense of belonging and engagement, motivating students to contribute to their academic and career success while fostering their growth, performance, and leadership abilities.
Context: Reward systems have always played a pivotal role in education. They not only boost student motivation but also help build confidence and recognition, aligning with the goals of academic institutions. The implementation of this reward system in the post-pandemic era served as a tool to encourage physical classroom attendance, essential for hands-on learning as prescribed by the National Education Policy (NEP). This system was introduced to bring students back into the academic fold, ensuring their active participation in skill-based learning courses.
Awards Introduced: The college has announced four special awards to recognize student achievement in different areas:
1. Sister Nivedita Award – Given to students who actively volunteer under the National Service Scheme (NSS), commemorating Sister Nivedita’s contributions to women’s education and social
service.
2. Chandramukhi Basu Award – Awarded to students with the highest attendance in each honors subject, celebrating Chandramukhi Basu as one of the first women graduates in the British Empire and a pioneer of women’s education.
3. Kadambini Ganguly Award – Recognizes students who excel in practicals or projects, honoring Kadambini Ganguly’s legacy as the first practicing female doctor in British India.
4. Begum Rokea Award – Presented to the best reading room user in the college library, highlighting Begum Rokea's efforts in promoting education among Muslim women.
Challenges: The main challenge lies in ensuring fairness in the reward system, as it commonly focuses primarily only on academic achievements. To address this, a balance must be done between rewarding academic excellence and recognizing contributions to moral, physical, and aesthetic development.
Maintaining the integrity of the awards while promoting diverse areas of student engagement is also crucial.
Practice: The college rewards students for outstanding performances in various categories, such as practical experiments, leadership under NSS, and creative arts like painting and writing. By ensuring the process is transparent and well-supervised, the institution fosters an environment where both academic and extracurricular achievements are valued.
Uniqueness: The college has balanced between commonly practiced awards and honorary awards, ensuring special emphasis on pioneers of women’s education in India, making the awards historically and culturally significant. Additionally, the reward process is kept open, fair, and well-audited, ensuring the funds are used appropriately.
Evidence of Success: The reward system has visibly increased student engagement and performances. Prize distribution events, along with the publication of student work in the college magazine KRISTI, have been instrumental in recognizing student achievements. Post-pandemic, this system has played a crucial role in normalizing academic life, encouraging students to attend physical classes, engage in practical courses, and participate in leadership roles in the field of social service.
Problems Encountered: Adequate funding is required to maintain a material reward system that motivates students. Additionally, ensuring the system remains fair and encourages participation across both academic and non-academic areas remains a challenge.