Jammu Kashmir government asks colleges to get accredited by NAAC

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir government has asked all colleges in the union territory to get themselves evaluated and accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) within the shortest possible time, officials said on Friday. The instruction was issued by the higher education department principal secretary Rohit Kansal at a meeting with principals of colleges in the Jammu division here, they said.

"The focus of higher education must be on the quality of learning and teaching. To this end, all colleges would get themselves evaluated and accredited by the NAAC within the shortest possible time," a senior officer said. Kansal directed for an audit in all colleges to determine the quality of the academic input, and the need for course or options revision and modernisation of syllabus, he added.

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With the introduction of the New Education Policy (NEP), 2020, the focus has moved to quality education, flexibility in curriculum and globalisation of outlook, the official said. In his message to the principals, Kansal stressed that while good infrastructure was important for any institution, the true aim of an institute of higher learning is to impart humanistic, modern and high-quality education. Kansal asked the principals to introduce regular systems of pupil feedback and added that this would form an important part of the evaluation of educators.

The principal secretary instructed the principals to adopt technological tools like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Learning Management Systems (LMS). He also said colleges would be given greater flexibility and autonomy, but they too need to strive hard to achieve quality standards and learning outcomes. Kansal assured that conditions for utilisation of local funds would be made more flexible.

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During the course of the meeting, Kansal informed about the implementation of the new education policy from the 2022-23 academic session, and said, "Colleges would now be encouraged to exchange knowledge and expertise globally. Innovation and incubation would be fostered in a hub-and-spoke model, and expert assistance and guidance would be provided by universities and other premier institutes such as the IIT-Jammu and the IIM-Jammu." Startup competitions and research will be given special attention under NEP-2020, he added.