{ NAAC GRADING }
Bihar considers strong measures for boosting accreditation of institutions of higher learning in state.
PATNA: The Bihar State Higher Education Council (BSHEC) has recommended strong measures for boosting accreditation of state institutions of higher learning, which includes fixing accountability on laggard ones and linking performance with promotion and development funds from the state. It has also advocated that Bihar’s state universities must have representatives of industries/employment agencies as members of the board of studies and implement the much-delayed choice-based credit system (CBCS) and semester system.
An expert committee constituted by BSHEC over a month ago and headed by Lalit Natayan Mithila University (Darbhanga) pro vice chancellor Dolly Sinha, in its report submitted a few days ago, has said that lack of accountability was a cause of concern and linking it with promotion or any other suitable measure was necessary to increase involvement of institutions for certification from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
The report also advocated a state-level accreditation council and compulsory SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threat) analysis by all institutions and submission of reports to the NAAC committee of the BSHEC for further action.
Under the New Education Policy (NEP), accreditation is a basic requirement, linked to funding. Since 2013, when the central government linked accreditation as a mandatory requirement for (Rashtriya Uchchtar Shiksha Abhiyan) RUSA funding, there has been a rush by institutions to get accredited, but Bihar has been slow on this count.
Under the NEP, a new body called National Accreditation Council (NAC), instead of NAAC, has been planned, with several accreditation institutions at the regional level.
Many institutions in Bihar got poor grades in the past due to severe shortage of teachers, poor student feedback, inadequate infrastructure and lack of research.
The state continues to fare poorly in the ranking of institutions by NAAC despite the fact that all institutions have to get accredited by next year.
At the start of 2021, the total number of NAAC-accredited colleges was less than 100 in the state. This includes just six in the
A-grade. The number of accredited colleges was 107 last year. Bihar has 250 constituent colleges and an even higher number of affiliated or private colleges.
The committee has recommended that there was a growing need to do classification of colleges as per their accreditation status and make institutions go in for assessment l either by motivation, incentives or punitive action.
If development fund is linked to NAAC report and grading, majority of the state institutions today will be deprived of it or may witness substantial reduction due to poor grading and just absence of assessment.
At present, just one of the state universities, Patna University, is accredited. Accreditation of six other universities has lapsed.
One can well imagine the state of higher education when the 156-year old Patna College, the oldest institution under Patna University, and 132-year-old BN College have been ranked ‘C’ by NAAC. Many institution ranked ‘A’ earlier have also slipped due to stringent NAAC framework. The BSHEC had to recently request NAAC for giving sixmonth extension to Bihar institutions for applying in view of Covid disruptions, as many of them could not even apply on time.
According to figures available with the BSHEC, the number of accredited colleges in Bihar as on December 31, 2020, was 96. The committee has recommended that institutions be categorised on the basis of NAAC first comprising those which have never applied for accreditation, second including those with expiry of first, second or third cycle and third comprising those which have their accreditation due.
“The current status of NAAC accredited institution is very low, with very few institution completing third cycle. Majority of the institutions have completed just first cycle, while many have done not even that due to hesitancy. Some colleges got ‘A’ grade in 2014 but never went in for the second cycle, while several other big colleges ended up with very poor grade, indicating lack of preparedness, adaptation and modernisation. Under revised framework of NAAC, many colleges for degraded.there is an urgent need to change this trend and it requires proper coordination between the state government and the institutions. Accountability also needs to be fixed on part of laggard institutions and it could be linked to promotion to ensure better involvement,” said the committee report.
With an aim to improving the gross enrolment ratio (GER) and quality in higher education centres, the BSHEC was constituted as a basic requirement under the Rashtriya Uchchatara Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA). The BSHEC has been given the responsibility of suggesting a roadmap for implementation of the new education policy (NEP) in the higher education sphere.