HRD turns down PMO idea on accreditation

NEW DELHI: Having gone with the PMO on most contentious issues Smriti Irani had resisted, the HRD ministry has turned down its proposal on accreditation of educational institutes against quality parameters.

With questions raised over the credibility and integrity of the current accreditation regime, the Prime Minister’s Office had proposed that multiple independent international agencies be introduced to ensure greater transparency and for timely and scientific accreditation of institutes.

It is learnt that HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar pointed out that top notch Indian institutes were just as competent and probably better placed to do the job.

It is gathered that the HRD ministry suggested that IITs, IIMs, NITs and institutes of national importance be roped in for accreditation.

Irani had run into conflict with the PMO over the regulatory regime for world class institutes and the autonomy of IIMs but Javadekar has ended the row by agreeing to bulk of suggestions from the PMO.

Accreditation is probably the only point on which his ministry is taking a line different from the PMO’s.

The PMO, which has been monitoring the HRD ministry against near 45 action points, has listed finalisation of guidelines “to allow internationally reputed institutions to accredit higher education institutions” by June 2016.

At a stock taking meeting called by the Niti Aayog earlier this month, the issue was taken up and the HRD ministry indicated that it was instead working on a proposal to engage the best educational institutes in the accreditation process.

The HRD ministry’s proposal says that the process of inspection of institutes for accreditation — a key area which is often allegedly compromised — will be outsourced to a consortium of IITs and IIMs.

Currently, it is the National Board of Accreditation and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council which inspect, evaluate and assess technical institutes and other higher education institutes respectively on certain parameters.

The Javadekar led ministry is now proposing to outsource the entire inspection regime to IITs and IIMs which will submit their reports to NAAC and NBA. Based on these reports, the two accreditation agencies will decide on whether to grant accreditation to the applicant institutes or not.

Source | Economic Times | 27 October 2016

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