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Education News

DELHI Union education ministry, in the first
NAAC's second innings stage, the binary accreditation system

will be implemented from 2024
after which no new applications will
be accepted under the CGPA rating
methodology.
However, the previous grading
system has not been jettisoned alto-
gether. The A-E grading system has
been replaced by a new ‘Maturity-
based Graded Accreditation’ system
to “encourage accredited institutions
to raise the bar, continuously im-
prove, evolve in-depth or in-breadth
in disciplines from Level-1 to Level-4
as institutions of National Excellence
and then to Level-5 as Institutions of
Global Excellence for multi-disciplin-
ary Research and Education.”
Although NAAC’s new binary
evaluation process eliminates the old
A-E grading system, some monitors
NAAC headquarters, Bengaluru: new binary accreditation system of higher education describe the new
“maturity-based” Level 1-5 evaluation
ost sentient higher edu- fect from February. This is in accor- system as new wine in an old bottle.
cation leaders privately dance with recommendations of the Maturity is not defined in the min-
Mlament the glacial pace at final report of the Dr. K. Radhakrish- istry’s January 27 press statement.
which the mandates of the National nan Committee submitted to the However, the Radhakrishnan Com-
Education Policy (NEP) 2020 are government in early January. The mittee says that under the new binary
being implemented in collegiate and committee was constituted under the accreditation system, HEIs will be
university education. The Higher leadership of former ISRO chairman categorised (multi-disciplinary &
Education Commission of India Dr. K. Radhakrishnan in November research-intensive, teaching-inten-
(HECI) — the overarching umbrella 2022 to propose reforms in NAAC’s sive, vocational and skill-intensive,
organisation mandated to preside accreditation system following a community engagement and service,
over the entire higher education rising crescendo of complaints of ir- rural & remote location) and evaluat-
system (excluding medical and legal regularities, bias and corruption and ed on the criteria of “orientation and
education) — has not been consti- “outdated static evaluation rubric”. vision”, and “heritage and legacy” to
tuted. NEP 2020 also proposed four The Dr. Radhakrishnan Commit- be awarded Level 1-5 ranking.
independent verticals under HECI. tee report finalised after incorporat- In this connection, it’s also notable
Three years after NEP 2020 was ing public feedback and comments that although NAAC was established
unanimously approved by the BJP on its draft released in May 2023, as a subsidiary of the apex-level
government at the Centre, neither has recommended abolition of University Grants Commission 30
has HECI been constituted nor any NAAC’s elaborate cumulative grade years ago, it has not inspired much
of the independent verticals. point average (CGPA) system of ac- confidence among HEIs. Thus far,
However, on the issue of ac- creditation for HEIs. only 9,062 undergrad colleges (out of
creditation of higher education Under NAAC’s CGPA rating sys- a total 43,796) and 418 universities
institutions (HEIs), there’s been tem, colleges and universities opting (of 1,113) have opted for NAAC ac-
some traction. On January 27, the for evaluation were awarded A, B, C creditation, which is voluntary.
Union education ministry issued and D grades denoting Very Good, According to Dr. Pankaj Mit-
a press note stating that the Ban- Good, Satisfactory and Unsatisfac- tal, secretary-general of Association
galore-based National Assessment tory. Those with scores of 1.5 or less of Indian Universities (AIU), binary
and Accreditation Council (NAAC, are not accredited. The new binary accreditation ensures a clear and
estb.1994), UGC’s accreditation system has abolished this grading objective standard, providing stake-
agency for HEIs, is switching over to rubric. holders confidence in the quality and
a binary system of grading with ef- According to the statement of the consistency of accredited institu-

22 EDUCATIONWORLD MARCH 2024