More than 80% institutions fail to meet NAAC standards

Over 80% of the educational institutions in India are struggling to meet the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) standards, say members of the Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI).

In a day-long national conference titled ‘Indian Higher Education: Resolving Challenges of Quality and Brand Building’ in the city, they discussed several aspects of how higher educational institutions function.

EPSI president and founder-chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology, G Viswanathan said: “Most private educational institutions are concerned about infrastructure and facilities. It is time for us to focus on improving the quality and standard of teaching. We are mainly focused on 80% of the educational institutions, which are unfit to meet NAAC standards.”

He said the major task before EPSI is to improve the standards of these institutions, an idea the conference discussed in detail.

In his inaugural address, Anil D Sahasrabudhe, chairman, All India Council for Technical Education
(AICTE), reiterated improving the teaching standards.

“A lot of importance is given to infrastructure in education. I don’t know how infrastructure has become more important than the quality of the teaching faculty,” Sahasrabudhe wondered, adding that one good teacher can make up for bad infrastructure.