TO THE Notice Of All Students And Parents

Count on us; we are with you

15-06-2020

Warm greetings from St Aloysius College to you!

Once again, it is my pleasure to address you all my dear students and parents to share my feelings and update you on what has been happening at St Aloysius College during the past few weeks.

At the very outset I would like to appreciate the courage and solidarity that we have displayed during the pandemic in our own small little ways. It is heartening to know that all of us are in good health and have been following the guidelines of the authorities in containing the spread of the infection. Let us all feel proud about it.

Past few weeks have been difficult for all of us. We have faced uncertainties regarding the end semester examinations, beginning of the forthcoming semesters, revising for the end semester examinations, and most importantly, ways of spending time while staying home for months together. These are pertinent and genuine concerns and the College has been making serious efforts to reach out to you through various platforms connecting you to departments, class guides and mentors. I have noted these concerns and would like to address these issues later in this note for the benefit of the parents and students. 

Secondly, I would like to brief you regarding some of the innovative initiatives that the College has been engaging in during the pandemic. The College reached out to persons in the city of Mangalore and its surroundings affected by the country wide lockdown by providing food and essentials. These included the household of our students hailing from economically poor sections of the society, migrant laborers, children and the senior citizens.

The Listening and Learning Centre of the College responded quickly to the context and created a unique platform called “Manothejaka”- an online space to help the pandemic hit people all over the country offering counseling services to individuals with pandemic related and other psychological accompaniment. Many of our College staff has been engaging in this venture; many of our students and members of the public are being helped by this initiative.   The Radio Sarang, 107.8 FM, a community radio is a unit of the College, which has played a major role in airing health related programmes on a regular basis during the period of lockdown creating awareness and educating the people of the region to face the pandemic boldly. 

Another innovative initiative that College provided to our students was designing and offering Free Online Certificate Courses. This venture was primarily conceived to benefit our students to upgrade their knowledge and skills and put them on a futuristic continuous learning mode. I am sure most of the students have taken the optimum benefit of these courses as they were offered free of cost along with an E-certificate for those who have successfully completed the course.  Our staff members have worked hard and have designed more than 50 such courses of contemporary relevance. It is with great pride and satisfaction that I share with you that more than 4,000 students and faculty from over 300 reputed national and international institutions have utilized this facility. I express my deep sense of gratitude to the staff and students who have been an integral part of this initiative.

The College has more than a thousand licenses of Coursera Online Courses which can be availed for free for St Aloysius College staff and students. Many members of the staff and students have availed this facility. I invite many more students to register for these online courses, complete the course and receive an E-Certificate from Coursera. Interested students can contact your class guides and get connected to Coursera through the IQAC Coordinator.

The interest of our students has been our utmost concern. The faculty has been intensively getting trained in the technology to gear themselves for the challenges of the future equipping themselves with the skills for the remote teaching-learning scenario. The College organized a three-day intensive hands-on Faculty Development Program to acquire the technical skills of online teaching learning. 

I am happy to announce that we are confident and ready for a blended online and regular classroom teaching-learning in the forthcoming semesters for you causing no inconvenience to any stakeholder. As I write these lines, our faculty is busy preparing the E-content along with assignments and quizzes for assessment. You may be aware that more than 25 webinars will be conducted during the next 10 days with renowned scholars and experts as resource persons. I wish that all of you make the best use of this facility free of cost. This is designed by the faculty to make you aware of the recent trends and the future prospects of your respective disciplines. Parents also are most welcome to register for these webinars as some of them are on general contemporary issues and concerns.

Examinations:  
One of the immediate concerns of the College as on today is conducting the end semester exams to the Final Year students, conducting evaluation and declaring their results. Examinations of the Intermediate semester students (semesters II & IV) also is our serious concern.

We have been in regular touch with the University authorities regarding the announcements of the examination schedule. As we are still affiliated to Mangalore University, we are bound to consult them and follow instructions issued by them. Moreover, you are aware that the pandemic is steadily exploding in most of the cities in India in recent days. In this context, it is only advisable that we as a College with large number of students, take the State, the District Administration, the University and the Health Departments into confidence and follow their directives and guidelines.

I expect that all students continue their revision work in spite of the confusing communications regarding end semester examinations. I am sure that an official announcement will be made by the relevant authorities shortly.

As we have promised in our earlier communication, we will post the schedule of examinations on the College website well in advance, i.e. at least 15 days before the commencement of examination.
 
It is my sincere wish that all of us lead the institution forward with mutual goodwill and shared vision, especially during these challenging times.
We have kept you in our prayers and wish God’s blessings on each one of you.

Stay Safe: Take Precautions.

Regards

Rev Dr Praveen Martis, SJ  
Principal