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| Edited By: Jayalakshmi Venugopal |Source: DNA |Updated: Nov 19, 2013, 11:17 PM IST
School advertisements boasting of high quality education and world class infrastructure cannot carry away parents anymore, as they can now make informed choices by checking if the educational institution has been accredited by the Quality Council of India (QCI).
Recently, QCI signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan to help promote quality education in select KV schools in the country through accreditations. This pilot project will cover KV schools across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
QCI introduced accreditation for schools based on a suggestion made by the former President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Kalam, during the second QCI National Quality Conclave in February 2007, had emphasised the need for standards to ensure quality education.
Accreditation involves examining aspects like the school’s infrastructure, results, admission practices, curriculum development and learning environment. Initially, the QCI team held a workshop for officials associated with five KV schools in the city, from which only KV Hebbal was given the go-ahead for the accreditation.
“The first meeting with QCI officials took place in April this year. It was a one-day session with select principals, teachers and non-teaching staff to understand the accreditation process,” said S Vijaya Kumar, assistant commissioner, Bangalore region, KV Sangathan.
These schools were short-listed after analysing the 47 KV schools in Bangalore region.
The assistant commissioner said that there will be two more rounds of meetings with QCI officials regarding the accreditation of KV Hebbal. “We have taken this as a challenge to get our school accredited by the QCI. If this project succeeds, it might be slowly extended to other KV schools as well,” he added. The selected KV schools intend to implement the Accreditation Standard for Quality School Governance (second edition September 2008) prepared by the National Accreditation Board for Education and Training, QCI.
