Haryana Governor Chancellor and Bihar Education Minister urges universities to go for NAAC Accreditation.

Haryana Governor- Chancellor Bandara Dattatraya said that all universities in Haryana should go for NAAC Accreditation so as to be better prepared and placed to impart quality education to students. He said that universities will realize their strengths and weaknesses during the preparation for accreditation which in turn makes them introspect and set right their weak points. He further said that the recommendations given in the report to Higher Education Institutes, State Government, and other Stakeholders are very suitable and will help the quality enhancement of Higher Education Institutes in Haryana and also that, in the context of NEP2020, some of the recommendations given in the book will give a lot of scopes to improve the quality of Government Institutions.

Mr. Dattatraya further said that, to ensure whether students are well equipped with necessary skills, an ecosystem should be developed in the campus and that the Higher Education be aligned to market the needs and job trends where the focus must be to train students to be job givers. Restraining that education is the first fatality to poverty, Mr. Dattatraya said that it must be ensured that students get quality education and that our resolve to realize the goal of ‘Ek Bharat, Sarvshrestha Bharat’ will be realized only when students from socially disadvantaged groups are supported financially and academically.

Bihar Education Minister, Vijay Kumar Choudhary expressed concern over the slackness of Higher Education Institutions in getting themselves accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and availing grants under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA). The minister’s direction came as the deadline of February 28, set by the All India Survey for Higher Education (AISHE) was drawing close and some state universities were still struggling to complete the admission process in the new session. He said that AISHE had been conducting a nationwide annual survey to get an idea about the status of higher education on several parameters such as faculty, student enrollment, examination results, education finance, infrastructure, etc., and found that Bihar’s participation has always been very low. He cited that under the new rules, distance education cannot be run by universities without A grade and that Bihar doesn’t have any A-grade State University which will mean the closure of all directorates of distance education.

The Minister while inaugurating a day-long workshop organized by the Bihar State Higher Education Council (BSHEC)said ‘ Colleges should be encouraged to upload Self Study Reports to the designated websites to get themselves assessed and accredited by NAAC and get entitled to development grants under RUSA. He further stated that NAAC accreditation is absolutely necessary for infrastructure development and academic ambiance on the university and college campuses. He further added that the Government has created a cell to keep a tab on NAAC accreditation to each college and that the government will provide financial assistance for infrastructure development so that they can get better NAAC scorings. Besides, the government has also chalked out a plan to improve ‘Student’s Gross Enrollment Ratio’ from the present 13.6% to 30% which will further be increased to 50% by 2035. During the speech, he also stressed the need for quality faculty members on a regular basis and cited that quality in education can only be brought by regular faculty members who will be dedicated and sincere to their work.