Brief History Of The College

Establishment

The Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal approved the establishment of General Degree College named ‘Shishuram Das College’ at Bhusna, P.O. - Kamapole, P.S. - Diamond Harbour, Dist. - South 24 Parganas with effect from 2010 – 2011 academic session. Accordingly, in 2010, as a ‘Destination of Higher Education’ Shishuram Das College started its journey in the first year at Sarisha High School building. Thus the aspiration for higher education of the local people, particularly the students belonging to the poor and middle-class families who cannot afford to go far off places for meeting the demand of higher education, was fulfilled. The establishment of the College was possible for the educationist and philanthropist Late Pranapati Das who donated Rs. 11 Lakhs and 0.54 acre of land for the college in the name of his father Late Shishuram Das. Sri Rishi Kumar Halder (Ex-MLA and former President of the college) supported wholeheartedly towards the foundation of the College. Diamond Harbour Sarisha Janakalyan Sanstha played an important role in the foundation of the college. The college owes its huge premises (an area of 5.08 acres) to the society. The foundation stone of the present college building was laid on 16th August 2010 by Dr. Suranjan Das, the then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta and Dr. Subimal Sen, the then Chairman of West Bengal State Council of Higher Education in the presence of Sri Rishi Kumar Halder, Dr. Haraprasad Samaddar and others. Since then, the college has expanded structurally and academically, thus earning the reputation of having an excellent academic environment. At present the college imparts higher education to around 2000 students of Arts stream. This number is expected to increase in the future. Apart from general classrooms, smart classroom and library the college also has canteen and common rooms for students and a playground for sports and other outdoor activities.

Affiliation and Courses

Since its inception, the college is affiliated to the University of Calcutta. At present the college offers Four-year B. A. Honours and Honours with Research courses in six subjects that include Bengali, English, History, Education, Philosophy and Political Science. It also offers Three-year B. A. Multidisciplinary courses in ten subjects that include Bengali, English, Sanskrit, Arabic, History, Geography, Philosophy, Education, Political Science and Physical Education.

Location and Campus

The college is located within Diamond Harbour Block - II area and it is surrounded by many reputed educational institutions like Diamond Harbour Women’s University, The Neotia University, Sarisha High School, Sarisha Ramakrishna Mission and Sarisha Sarada Mandir (Primary Teachers Training Institute). The college has a well-constructed building and campus that covers an area of about 5 acres of land.

Vision

• To provide holistic higher education with a multifaceted human development-centric approach to the local people irrespective of social and economic discrimination.
• To inculcate a sense of discipline, self respect, sacrifice, devotion and love for the nation among the students.
• To develop intellect, skill, knowledge and creativity so as to cope with the contemporary changes in the curriculum aspects.
• To educate and empower the students and acquaint them with practical training so that they can avail various opportunities in higher education and employment.

Mission

Our Mission is:

• To create an enlightened society by educating the younger section of the society and make them competent for the development of the nation.
• To provide quality education to the students of the area irrespective of any discrimination for integrated growth and personality development.
• To create a quality youth force through value education beyond their syllabus so that they bear the responsibility to fight against ignorance, illiteracy and other social evils.
• To explore the qualities and talents of the students and provide them with facilities for pursuance of their talents at the state and national levels and also mould their talents into professional skills.
• To encourage extracurricular and outreach activities among all the stakeholders by following the principles of benevolence, honesty, sacrifice, sincerity and high moral or ethical standards of behavior.

Institutional Strength:

• For the pursuit of higher education and catering to the needs of the society in a backward area, the institution has a dedicated and competent faculty.
• Ours is a co-educational institution where the student base is large and comes from different social background. The diversity among the students creates an open and free environment in the institution and also fosters the spirit of harmony and national integrity.
• The institution actively promotes extracurricular activities among the students through various cultural, sports, social and extension activities for the complete development of the students.
• To execute the vision and mission of our institution successfully, we provide various Government and Non-government scholarships as well as extend institutional concession in the form of revoking application fees or tuition fees to the needy students.
• The institution has a good collection of textbooks, reference books in the Library, to help the students and teachers to broaden their knowledge and improve their skills.
• The institution has an environment sensitive approach in its day to day functioning. This approach helps to create environmental awareness among all the stakeholders.
• The institution promotes gender neutrality and equal opportunities for the stakeholders thereby evolving into a congenial environment for the pursuance of its vision and mission.
• The institution has Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with varied institutions to enrich the quality of education and open opportunities for students to explore areas beyond boundaries.
• Excellent Infrastructural Facilities with adoption of modern technology and ICT by all faculties Initiatives have been taken to develop a variety of skills development and value added courses catering to the requirement of Stake holders.
• Good percentage of student attendance in the classrooms.
• Continuous Internal Assessment with several class tests and regular feedback ensures academic excellence is maintained.
• Involvement of the stake holders in various social service and community work through the NSS unit of the college.
• Digitized library with integrated online databases and other learning resources, Smart Class room, Classrooms, seminar halls, and open ground for conduction of various programmes.
• Student centric learning activities such as Student Seminars, Debate, PowerPoint presentation, quizs etc. to enhance the learning and knowledge base of the students Commitment and dedication among all the stake holders to inculcate progressive ideas with human values.
• Ample scope of sports and games.

Institutional Weakness:

• The institution has not been receiving funds/ grants from UGC and other Government / Non-Government organization for the last few academic years. This has resulted in a bottleneck for carrying out the mission and vision of the institution.
• The institution has acute infrastructural deficiency e.g., less number of classrooms, laboratories and smart rooms.
• Alumni participation needs to be ensured for the development of the institution.
• The Institution has taken several initiatives for promoting placement among students, still the percentage of placement may be improved.

Institutional Opportunity:

• The institution has an immense opportunity to offer other new disciplines of Science and Commerce subjects.
• The institution being surrounded predominantly by rural areas, there is an immense opportunity for various social extension activities using its human capital, infrastructure and professional knowledge.
• The location of the institution is ideal for knowledge dissemination in areas like sustainable agricultural practices, hand craft production etc.

Institutional Challenges:

• The most important challenge to the institution presently is to overcome the financial and infrastructural bottleneck for smooth delivery of service.
• Owing to the diverse socio-economic background of students that we cater, it becomes a challenge to elevate them to a level so that they can adapt with the ever-growing needs of modern curriculum under CBCS & NEP.
• In the last few years we have experienced a declining trend of student admission in various disciplines. This trend can mostly be attributed to the challenging job market scenario in recent times. It is becoming increasingly difficult to motivate students to study in General Degree Programme (both Honours and General) instead of job-oriented technical/ professional and vocational degree and diploma courses.