HYDERABAD: After launching the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) to rank universities and higher education institutions across the country, the Centre has decided to bring in a similar methodology to assess the school sector.
MHRD officials said the new School Education Quality Index (SEQI) is likely to be implemented on a pilot basis from April 2017 and in a full fledged manner from January, 2018.
MHRD and NITI Aayog are jointly working on this to improve education at the state and UT Level “school education will be assessed on learning outcomes, governance and management categories. This includes the teaching methodologies used, student enrolments and dropout data, number of students from deprived sections as well as minorities, infrastructure etc. Parameters are still being worked out,” an HRD official said.
Anjali Razdan, school principal and vice-chairperson of a cluster of CBSE schools said that any step to assess the quality of education in schools should be welcomed. It sets a benchmark for all institutions to aim for the best ultimately improving school education, Ms Razdan said.
Meanwhile, former NAAC (National Accreditation and Assessment Council) director B.S. Prasad said that data should be collected at the micro level instead of just confining it to the macro level.
"The exact picture of the quality of schools, competency levels, learning outcomes, results and success rates can be known only by collecting micro level data," he said.
