Seven of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) inspection committees debarred last week on charges of bribery and granting favourable ratings have been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). These members will no longer be part of any college and university evaluations. In addition, NAAC is reviewing the institutions it last evaluated and the grades it had assigned them.
Among the persons arrested were Samarendra Nath Saha, former Chairman of the NAAC inspection committee of Ramchandra Chandravansi University and Vice Chancellor, Rajeev Sijariya, from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Gayathri Devaraja, an officer from Davangere University, M Hanumanthappa, of Bangalore University and office bearers of Guntur’s Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (KLEF). The charges are made by the CBI as it probes the alleged bribery scandal in which inflated ratings were awarded in exchange for kickbacks.
The incident was ‘shocking’ and ‘deeply unfortunate’, NAAC executive committee chairman and vice-chancellor of Visvesvaraya Technological University, Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe, said. This scandal, however, emphasized that NAAC should revalidate its procedures. The key change which is being introduced is the swap of physical inspections for a digital system for accreditation. This concurs with the advice of the Radhakrishnan Committee, which issued a report to the Ministry of Education in January of last year.
The new digital strategy is meant to take more open, accurate and efficient approach to the evaluation process of educational institutions. Coinciding with this, Sasahrabudhe said the expert selection process is fully automated, which makes it possible that there may have been breaches in the system. However, he confirmed that the CBI is assisting in getting to the bottom of the whole matter.
NAAC is an organisation that was set up in the year 1994. this body evaluates the quality of education at Indian universities as well as the colleges that impart education, and it gives grades based on a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) system.
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