CBSE News- CBSE to Conduct quality assessment of its schools

From - http://www.deccanherald.com/

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to conduct a thorough assessment of the quality of schools affiliated to it, in order to ensure that they meet the standards prescribed by it.

The decision to conduct a quality check of its schools has been taken by the CBSE in view of concerns regarding quality of education raised from various quarters during 11th Five Year Plan.

The CBSE move assumes significance as it has been seen that many of the schools come in contact with the board at the time of getting initial affiliation, up-gradation or renewal of affiliation.“Once this is completed, there is hardly any monitoring or quality check. The only indicators of standards are class X and class XII board examination results,” sources in the CBSE told Deccan Herald.

The quality check exercise, which is to be conducted by the board on a pilot basis first, will cover all aspects of a school functioning, “from scholastic and co-scholastic domains to infrastructural areas, human resources, management and administration, leadership and beneficiary satisfaction,” the sources added.

After completion of the exercise, the schools will be awarded accreditation by the board that will signify that they met the standards at an “acceptable level” and were willing to maintain those standards and improve their educational programme by implementing the recommendations made by the quality assessment team.

“The accreditation will also ensure that the schools prepare their students for citizenship responsibilities, successful careers, acquisition of life skills and life- long learning,” sources said.

It will also indicate that the educational institutions have conducted a self-evaluation of all of their programmes and hosted a visiting committee to evaluate the institution in terms of its own stated educational goals and the standards set for CBSE accreditation.

The standards applied for accreditation will be “qualitative” and can be adapted and applied to any of the types of educational institutions affiliated with the board, sources added.

The board, which is in process of finalising the modalities of the proposed assessment exercise, has invited its schools to participate in the programme, if they wish to get accreditation.

“The goals (of the assessment exercise) are effectiveness, improvement and public assurance. This will not involve ranking institutions, but rather, will establish a level of acceptable quality for all accredited institutions while respecting the unique missions of the institutions involved,” sources said.

From merely 309 schools in 1962, the tally of CBSE affiliated schools has gone over 11,000 by now. The Board enjoys a national status with an international jurisdiction as a large number of schools, affiliated to it, are functioning in different countries.