Teachers, principals, and heads of academic institutions in Uttar Pradesh have reported that their institutions are having difficulty applying for assessment by the National Assessment Accreditation Council (NAAC) because of a lack of funding, a language barrier when filling out forms, and a complicated form-filling system.
During a session on the ranking and accrediting of higher education institutions at the National Summit of Institutional Leaders 2024 held at Lucknow University, these concerns were raised in the presence of NAAC director Ganesan Kannabiran.
The head of a girls’ degree institution in Ambedkar Nagar stated during the function that the college does not have the money to construct restrooms for females, much less pay the NAAC an assessment cost of Rs 5 lakh. In response, the director of the NAAC stated that the council is developing a binary accreditation system that will do away with the requirement for peer team site visits, which is probably going to lower the assessment cost.
Instructors have also bemoaned the assessment form’s complexity and the fact that it can only be completed in English, which presents a problem for universities and schools that solely offer Sanskrit or Hindi instruction.
In response, Kannabiran stated that NAAC will soon provide institutions the option to translate their reports or submit them in all of the major languages.
Having trained for the previous NAAC evaluation system, college instructors also reported difficulty regarding the new binary accreditation scheme.
But Kannabiran reassured them that institutes will first have the choice to apply under the new binary accreditation system or the existing grading system.
Kannabiran urged educators, administrators, and heads of institutions to participate in NAAC evaluations without worrying about how they would perform.
According to Kannabiran, the NAAC evaluation is the most accurate tool for gauging the advancement of an educational institution since it measures what is not managed correctly.
