Northeast and Higher Education: A Reality Check
Northeast the best place for higher education, said no one ever, like no one. We have a lot of good things in the Northeast, but higher education, not so much. And before you start typing, “you anti-national,” on this video, wait, wait. This is not our opinion.
The NIRF Rankings and Their Impact
The NIRF ranking gained high traction across all regions, and rightly so, for good or bad, this is one of the few credible rankings that need not be taken with a pinch of salt. The worrying, or the expected, depending on how you see life, was that only four universities, not counting Ghati Ghati University, Sil University, Despur University, and Missam University, made it to the list.
A Surprising Statistic: One College in the Top 100
If you think that is bad, listen to this: only one college from the Northeast made it to the list of top 100. One. And before you take a guess, stop. You would either know the name of the college or not. I mean, no offense, but how many of you have heard of Punga College in Isol?
Punga College: A Remarkable Achievement
And no, Punga has not barely made it to the list, like say, Tpur rank 45 for a college located in the Northeast. Not bad, not bad at all, I Kalan De. And in this episode of Decoded, we will try to explain how Punga College achieved this feat.
The Impact of the Pandemic on Education in the Northeast
For months, the village of Assam, the 75th Independence Day. Missum residents are only too well aware of how hard the pandemic has been for the state. While the state escaped relatively unscathed in the first wave, the second wave hit the state hard. Even now, the cases remain on an upward trend.
How Punga College Managed During the Pandemic
How then did this college manage to conduct classes regularly? Jri Dham Sangi, under officer, PU NCC Army Wing, had this to say about how they managed even during the pandemic: “The study system was conducted very properly. Classes were conducted properly. The lectures, our teachers, our professors, they provided us proper lectures using slideshows, PowerPoint, and they ensured that each and every student understood what was being taught.”
Principal’s Vision and Continuous Improvement
And not just these efforts. Principal of Punga College, Professor H Lanzara, attributes the feat to various initiatives taken up by previous principals, such as systematic administration and academic setup. “Ten years back, we changed the previous principal, Dr. To. He started initiating various systems to improve the quality in various aspects. So after his tenure, we maintained that systematic administration and academic setup in the college. And our team monitored the quality improvement of the college in academic performance, analyzing all our department ways and college-level academic performance, and we identified our weaknesses, to which point we have to put more emphasis. And in that way, slowly and steadily, we improved, tried to improve.”
A Model for Other Colleges in the Northeast
To put it simply, while several, especially private universities (you know which ones we are talking about, those world-famous universities made famous because a vlogger came to their campus), colleges like PUC are doing real honest work. Also, PUC should serve as an inspiration to hundreds of colleges in Nagaland, Tripura, Assam, and even other parts of Missam. We hope that next year, we can talk more about colleges from the Northeast in India’s top colleges and universities. Until then, well done, Punga.