What are the focus areas of Accreditation Standards for Quality School governance? The main focus is to improve performance. The standard encourages schools to pursue continued excellence. What will be the components of the accreditation for self-evaluation by the schools? Governance, resource management and educational service processes will be evaluated. It will identify the competency need of teachers, look at work environment and also if the curriculum facilitates the development of students. Our aim is the overall development of the child. Has any school come forward for accreditation? The standards were released on December 19. A number of public schools have come forward to seek accreditation. DAV group wants to adopt it for its schools all over the country. Even the 11 Navyug schools of NDMC have decided to implement accreditation standards. Will the standards be common for all schools, private and government? Yes, they will be the same. Is it based on existing models like those devised by Azim Premji Foundation and Pratham? We referred to some of the international guidelines on accreditation of schools, which include the Council of International schools standard for Accreditation, Europe, CIS Guide to School Evaluation and accreditation, Advanced Accreditation Standards for Quality Schools, USA, Education criteria for performance excellence (Baldrige USA). We have also referred to the International working agreement "�II, Quality Management Systems Guidelines on application of ISO-9000 in education system, for its structure. How will you reach out to the schools? In the first phase, beginning in January, we will invite the principals of schools in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore and sensitise them through workshops. In the second phase, from March, a day-long awareness workshop for teachers will be launched in 20-25 cities. Is there any coordinating organisation between QCI and the schools? The National Accredition Board for Personnel and Training, a body under the QCI, will co-ordinate the accreditation related activities. Who will go to assess the schools once it implements the guidelines? The Accreditation Board will train and impanel the evaluators who would have have adequate experience in education arena. We will lodge the evaluators, most of whom would be working teachers in all the regions. Who will fund the initiative QCI will provide the initial resources,. Later, the board is expected to earn revenues through accreditation fees collected from the schools. The Board will announce the launch of accreditation of the schools formally in March next year. The fee and procedures for the grant of accreditation will be declared at that time. |