Best Practices

Best Practice

Visits to Local Self-government and Public Administrative Institutions

Objectives:

1)      To make students acquainted with the actual functioning of local self-government and administrative units.

2)      To give them experience of interacting with political and administrative leaders.

3)      To know about the role played by the government in development of surrounding.

4)      To encourage them to pursue their willingness to get into civil services and/or politics by giving them an overview of the nature of work in these fields.

Context:

Political Science curriculum includes the study of local self -government and public administration. Students read about 73^rd and 74^th amendments  in their textbooks and know about the powers and functions of local self-government institutions. They also study administrative theories. In addition, most of the Political Science students possess the aspiration to become civil servants or pursue career in politics. Some of them have good exposure to nitty-gritty of day-to-day local politics. This practice of Political Science department which is being followed for many years now gives them experience of the working of government and policy making and gives them a push in pursuit of their careers.

The Practice:

            Under this practice, the interested BA I, BA II and BA III students of the department have over the years visited Gram Pnchayats, Nagar Pnachayats, Nagar Palikas, Zill Parishads and Mahanagar Palikas of Kolhapur district. This year students visited District Police Administration (29/08/2018), Mahabaleshwar Nagar Palika (31/12/2018) and Kolhapur Mahanagar Palika (29/01/2018). They interacted with the officials, aksed them questions and had an overview of the role and functioning of these institutes.

Outcome:

            Students become actively involved in the learning process.  They  bond  with their teachers and peers in the process.  It gives them confidence of speaking in government offices and makes them enthusiastic.

Problems encountered:

            Lack of sufficient homework and knowledge on part of the students is observed as the problem.