CBSE seeks QCI help for accreditation framework

This is CBSE’s second attempt at making accreditation mandatory. (Representational)

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has approached the Quality Council of India (QCI) to develop an accreditation framework for its affiliated schools. QCI is an autonomous body of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion set up to establish and operate the national accreditation structure. According to sources, the board has asked QCI to prepare an approach paper to grade CBSE schools. “Normally, accreditation is focussed on the infrastructure, but we want 80 per cent weightage to criteria such as academic results, learning outcomes and alumni, and the remaining for infrastructure. Fancy classrooms and facilities are not the only things that make a good school,” said a CBSE official.

This is CBSE’s second attempt at making accreditation mandatory. In 2012, the board had launched the School Quality Assessment and Accreditation, under which 12 agencies were roped in to inspect and rate CBSE schools. This project, however, was abandoned after the pilot run. The board, under its new head R K Chaturvedi, is trying to work on the idea again. Nearly 19,000 schools are affiliated to CBSE.

“Although we want accreditation for all schools, we also don’t want to end up creating categories of good and bad schools. Schools with better ratings will use this to increase their fee. We have asked QCI to factor this in while drafting their approach paper for us,” the official added. Once the accreditation framework is ready, CBSE could make this a part of its affiliation rules, sources said.