This story is from September 11, 2019

Students bunking classes? Patna college sends SMSs to guardians

Students bunking classes? Patna college sends SMSs to guardians
Representative image
PATNA: Poor classroom attendance and growing distance from reading room and library is a common concern at colleges in the state. However, taking it as a challenge, Patna-based College of Commerce, Arts and Science (COCAS) has started sending SMSs to the guardians of those students who play truant.
The college, which is NAAC ‘A’ accredited under Patliputra University, has about 14,000 students enrolled.

The measure taken by the college last week worked, said principal TK Shandilya. He said those in the habit of bunking classes mended their ways and were attending lectures now.
Shandilya said initially about 300 messages were sent by the college to guardians daily, but the number of SMSs has come down to about 100 within a few days. Now, students know bunking of classes would no longer be a secret.
In some cases, guardians too made surprise visits to the college to be assured that their wards were on the campus. “As this college is imparting education from Intermediate to master’s level and has NAAC grade ‘A’, we focus on maintaining academic environment,” he said.
The next measure is “Visit library and earn awards”. It is aimed at reviving students’ interest in the college library. The principal said the library would keep students attendance and those who spent long hours with books and journals would be given awards, certificates and also monetary initiative in the form of cash or books. He said the book-reading habit was declining among students and this initiative would boost their interest.
Another college initiative is to launch online debate with Rise and Shine to bring students closer to technology, he said.
As notified, interested students would have to get registered. They would select topics and upload their videos of debates. Shandilya said physics department teacher Santosh Kumar was made the nodal officer for online debate. “Till Monday, over 200 students were registered,” he added.
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