Arunachal Pradesh Education Minister Honchun Ngandam on Tuesday admitted that Arunachal is facing quality challenges in higher education in general and in technical and management education in particular.
Addressing vice-chancellors of private universities, college principals and others during the inaugural session of a daylong workshop on, ‘Best Practices in Higher Education Institutions for quality management in Arunachal Pradesh’ here, Ngandam called for reforms to ensure fundamental changes at all levels of operation.
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He said the fundamental changes require greater accountability, transparency, and morality (ATM), more important than ATMs of any bank.
Time has come to create a wave of institutional building and of excellence in the fields of higher education, research, and capability with enhanced capacities, he said.
The minister said that the challenge of quality education with globalization as an opportunity calls for change in the mindset of all the stakeholders.
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“Higher educational institutions should foster their link with their community at the local, national and regional levels, to answer society’s needs,” he said.
Stating that quality cannot be imparted, Ngandam said that quality should be by design.
He said a quality product should be coming out of a robust system and there should be no compromise.
The minister said there should be continuous improvement in quality.
“Quality in technical education is an indication of the quality of society and country and its economic growth and the quality should be imparted in all aspects of a technical institute,” he said and called for a holistic approach to design the quality of an academic organization.
Terming the workshop as important, Bangalore-based National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC) advisor Dr M S Shyamasundar said that NAAC reviews the institutional quality procedures on a regular basis in order to safeguard the quality of higher educational institutions.
Besides qualitative and quantitative evaluation, and extensive use of data, student satisfaction survey is also done while granting accreditation.
Seeking proactive effort from all, he sought cooperation from all to improve the standard of education in the State.
Stating that Arunachal Pradesh has quantity (56 higher educational institution for a population of over 13.5 lakh), Education secretary, Dr Madhu Rani Teotia said we must ensure quality in these institutions.
Higher Education director Dr Tayek Talom highlighted the status of higher educational institutions in the State.
Earlier, RUSA deputy state project director Minto Ete made a power point presentation on the growth of Higher Education Institutions in the State.
He informed that the NAAC accreditation has been made mandatory for all higher educational institutions to ensure quality education.
Ete said that the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development directed the states to ensure that all HEIs are accredited by 2022.
Ete disclosed that 35% of the higher educational institutions in the State are accredited with the NAAC while 65% are yet to be accredited.
Out of the 56 higher educational institutions in the State, only 1 University and 7 colleges have been accredited by the NAAC, he said adding, some institutions had submitted Self-Assessment Report for the third cycle of NAAC accreditation.