Students, guardians to have say in evaluation process of educational institutions

In a bid to spruce up the qualitative assessment of educational institutions, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has made it mandatory for the institutes to furnish all the information about them online. It has also provided for the first time a questionnaire aimed at satisfying the concerns of the students and their guardians in assessment and evaluation of institutions. In an Interview to PTI Bhasha, the NAAC Executive Council president, Virendra S Chauhan said, "We have given due importance to the satisfaction of students and their guardians for the first time in the process of evaluation of the academic institutions. "It has been done so as the definition of quality for different stakeholders may be different but the students and their guardians have the highest stake in the process."

Taking this into account, a detailed questionnaire has been created, incorporating the concerns of the students and their guardians. The NAAC may seek answers to these questions from various students and their guardians randomly without disclosing their identities, Chauhan said. He said the NAAC regulations pertaining to the assessment of the educational institutions have been amended. And as per the amended provisions, various universities and colleges will have to apply online for the NAAC grading, following which a NAAC team will scrutinise all the given information. The NAAC would accord the grade for the institutions only after evaluating all these information, Chauhan said.

After fixing the grade, the NAAC would constitute another team to visit the institution for physical verification of the online information given by them, he said, adding the initiative would facilitate up to 70 to 75 per cent evaluation online. The NAAC executive council president said this initiative would ensure maximum possible transparency and minimum human intervention besides curtailing the scope of corruption in the process. The universities and the colleges will have to provide these information, sent to NAAC, on their respective websites as well, besides updating these information periodically.

The NACC will also not disclose to the institutions the identity of the members of the team constituted to physically verify their information, he said. Chauhan said while ensuring top priority to the professional credentials of educational institutions, the NAAC would also accord due consideration to the distinct nature of India's educational system because it is the constitutional responsibility of the government to impart education also to those who lack resources to get it.

He said there is infinite scope of expansion of higher education in the country and the government has taken steps to establish 20 institutes of excellence for the purpose.