BEST PRACTICE 1

TITLE – INCLUSIVE LEARNING LIBRARY FOR STUDENTS

OBJECTIVES OF THE PRACTICE

Provide equal learning opportunities to students from all socio-economic backgrounds, by equipping them with curriculum text books (on loan) for the entire academic session.Books are fundamental for any learning, and this practice aims at eliminating all barriers for any student to be able to access the required books for their learning during the academic session.

THE CONTEXT

Students join us from diverse socio-economic backgrounds,with several students limited in even paying nominal tuition fees at the time of admission. Purchasing text and reference books is not only challenging for these students, but also often of lowest priority.Books being indispensable instruments for learning, it is critical for students to be equipped with the right books required for their curriculum.Conventional library practices limits the number of books (usually two in number) and the duration for which these books can be issued to students.

PRACTICE

Sai College introduced an innovative “inclusive” learning library for all enrolled students, whereby each student was issued a complete set of curriculum books for the entire academic session. This set of books comprise of the text books, and also additional reference books which can aid in students holistic learning process.

EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS

This practice was well appreciated by parents of students who have enrolled in the college, and the book issue data shown below exemplifies popularity of this practice amongst the student population. This practice has enabled all segments of students being able to have the required books for learning, and in turn has impacted the overall student performance over years.(Average 88.96% over last five years)

GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF NUMBER OF STUDENTS VS NUMBER OF BOOKS ISSUED BY THEM AS ON 8TH OCT 2022

CHALLENGES FACED

In order to instate this library facility,the college faced multiple operational challenges;two major challenges being financial burden on college to facilitate books for increasing number of students and other challenge of limiting students’ learning through books provided from college.

At first, providing an inclusive learning environment is a priority to the college management, and hence, this was made an annual budgeted practice of procuring books.

As a result, presently college library has 17000+ books for the student strength of 1038.College has spent a cumulative amount of INR 1145000 for purchase of library books over last five years till 31st August 2022.

Secondly, with this practice of issuing books to the students for the complete session, it was observed that there was a decline in the habit of students to refer other books for reference and additional learning,resulting in constrained knowledge gained by the students.

To overcome this challenge, college subscribed to NLIST. Each student was granted access to it. Further, in order to encourage the use of NLIST, a monthly cash reward scheme for top three NLIST users was introduced.

WINNERS OF NLIST CASH REWARD SCHEME JULY 2022