Best Practices
Maitreya
Maitreya is a comparatively new venture of the college. It is intended to provide financial help to the pathetically poor among the deprived sectors of society. It incorporates the whole of the student community, teachers, non-teaching staff, and the management of the college. The aim of this practice is to infuse into the student’s feelings of empathy and concern for society. The programme enables the institution to achieve its vision and mission, to provide value-based education of the highest order.
The beneficiary is selected from several proposals. The proposals are usually put forward by the Staff Club, various Departments, the Women’s Cell, the NSS wing, and students. Besides, anyone can approach the Principal or the coordinator of Maitreya directly for seeking help. Under the guidance of the Co-ordinator the Committee selects the beneficiary. It is the discretion of the Committee to identify the most deserving one. We generate the funds from among the staff, alumni, the college management and students.
The genesis of Maitreya in 2010 was through the integrated thoughts of some of the faculty members of the college. It was later developed into a full-fledged ‘best practice’ followed in the college thereafter through the efforts of the management, Principal, and all the members of the staff who meet at regular intervals to monitor the programme. The students of the college are made involved wholeheartedly in the programme through the tutorial sessions in the college. Maitreya distributes the funds to the beneficiaries during important functions of the college such as the Alumni Day, Patron’s Day or Women’s Day, or any other programme which ensures public participation and, at times, directly approaches the beneficiaries to hand over the help to them.
Maitreya Overview
Maitreya is in keeping with the vision and mission of our college to pursue academic excellence by providing value-based education of the highest order to build up character and instil moral and spiritual values for attaining fullness of life; to address the need of the hour by trying to mould world class citizens with the highest intellectual acumen, emotional balance, spiritual strength and physical training. In this venture both the staff and the students contribute significantly and whole-heartedly. The project features a follow-up based continuous practice in which the teaching and non-teaching staff pool in money for the needy and, in addition, ensure that they interact with the beneficiaries of the practice by personally visiting them, spending some quality time with them, caring for them, and making them feel at home. In tandem with this practice, active member students of various Departmental Associations come up with their own financial contributions and donate the same to various causes they themselves identify. This standing group does not miss any occasion that calls for assistance of any kind and makes opportune interventions.
The beneficiaries of our scheme include individuals and service organizations alike. Identifying the needy is the first challenge we face. Needs and expectations are too many. Besides, since a vast majority of the students of this college come from extremely deprived sectors of society, very rarely have we had to search for the needy outside our campus.
Systematic management of time and human resources ensuring academic and co-academic performance is indeed a tough task.
This include anything about this practice that may be unique in the Indian higher education. Please also identify constraints or limitations if any.
We strive to instil a feeling of fraternity among our students. This will serve to enable them to recognize one another as members of the same family. This is evidenced by the fact that even after the demise of the student, students who had never personally known him, teachers who had never taught him and the non-teaching staff, who haven’t had much of an occasion to make acquaintance with him, came forward to render assistance, identifying the task as their own duty and responsibility. After all, a mind to identify and empathise with others’ causes is definitely a goal of education, particularly, in the Indian model.
Provide evidence of success such as performance against targets and benchmarks and review results. What do these results indicate?
Empathy for fellow beings, group work culture, harmony in togetherness, inspiration for individuals and groups within the campus and outside, the contentment of the family in need, a sensitization about social and public issues and many such ends could be achieved through even a single project like the one mentioned.
Administrative Set-up
Patron : Secretary, St. Peter’s College Trust
Chairman : Principal, St. Peter’s College
Co-ordinator: Dr. Sindhu.T.I., Associate Professor, Department of Hindi, St. Peter’s College
Members : One representative from each Department
Office Superintendent
