Tuesday, March 16, 2010:
Quality Council of India, the national accreditation body of India, developed an accreditation standard for schools that provides a framework for the effective management and delivery of holistic education programme aimed at overall development of the students. To enable school to assess their current status, the Council also developed a rating mechanism which can essentially be used as a self-improvement tool. The standard was developed through a consultative process involving academicians, parents, administrators and quality professionals.
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This initiative by NABET, National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (QCI) will help improve the quality of education in schools in India. This initiative will also support the several educational reforms being brought about by the Government of India. The focus on school improvement will stimulate development of numerous strategies directed towards improving quality of learning and teaching. The strategies will address the challenges of school education in India namely Access, Participation & Equity, Quality, Relevance, Management, and Resources.
Accreditation is a process of establishing competence of a school in delivering the requisite elements of education covering curriculum, faculty, administration, student services etc. It focuses on learning, self development and encourages the school to pursue continual excellence. Accreditation is awarded, after carrying out structured assessment of compliance to the accreditation. Accreditation helps to ensure that educational and support process have synergy to provide for holistic development of student. The main features and structure of the accreditation standard revolves around three major components namely school governance, educational and support process, performance measurement and improvement.
Since Accreditation is a relatively new concept for schools in India, the Council is promoting this standard across the country by organizing several awareness programmes. Schools are invited to participate in these programmes to understand the components of the Accreditation Standard as well as the Accreditation process and methodology. A large number of programmes have already been conducted across the country and schools have welcomed this initiative of Quality Council of India. Apart from awareness programmes, the Council has started conducting 3-days training for teachers helping them understand the details of the standard and thereafter implement the same. The Council has also developed a 3-days Examiners Course, which is aimed at developing a pool of experts who will be competent to conduct assessment as per the standard.
QCI has a very well laid out structured process of assessment. It is based on measurable 50 points check list of various parameters. NABET (QCI) stringently assesses and accredits schools on these 50 parameters broadly classified under three heads: School Governance, infrastructure and support mechanism and continual performance measurement and Improvement. One of the most significant aspects of QCI’s accreditation process is self evaluation by school functionaries which is very effective in regulating things.
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