In what could be a turning point for government schools in Gujarat, the Quality Council of India (QCI) has offered to furnish the state government with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET).

QCI Secretary General Girdhar Gyani met Principal Secretary (Education) Hasmukh Adhia in this regard on Saturday. Gyani has offered to help the Education Department set up a quality assurance agency for government schools and also take up the accreditation of 100 schools on a pilot basis.

“NABET became functional six months ago and falls under the purview of QCI. Two Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV), five Delhi government schools, one ICSE board school and one CBSE school in Chennai have been recently accredited under NABET. Thirty-three are in the process of accredition. The KV association has agreed to upgrade 900 KV schools,” said Gyani.

He added: “QCI is ready to translate the parameters of NABET in Gujarat and help them set up a quality assurance agency. We will submit the proposal in a week’s time. The government is keen on upgrading secondary and higher secondary schools. At present, there are several lacunae with the pedagogy, physical infrastructure, safety and hygiene. NABET can help in the evaluation and benchmarking of all these issues and surveillance will be done within a span of four years.”

Adhia said the implementation of the scheme will not take much time as the state government is aware of NABET. “QCI is willing to help us set up a quality assessment agency for primary schools. Within six months, we will be able to implement NABET through our independent quality assurance agency.”

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