Government schools in state to be assessed this year

The state government would soon set the ball rolling on grading the quality of 1,020 government schools across the state.

The assessment and accreditation of schools by the Karnataka State Quality Assessment and Accreditation Council (KSQAAC), a body formed early this year, is set to begin from November.

The entire exercise is estimated to cost Rs 2 crore to the government and would require nearly 700 assessors who will visit schools in districts. Three government higher primary schools and two government high schools from each education block have been selected.

The state has 204 education blocks. The exercise, believed to be the first-of-its-kind in the country, is aimed at ensuring quality education against the backdrop of the implementation of RTE Act.

The schools will be assessed and accredited with grades similar to National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) model.

On 100 marks, each school will be scrutinised for basic facilities (20), learning environment (60), leadership (10), community participation (5) and use of new and innovative methods (5).

“We have invited retired teachers, teacher educators and BEd holders to take part in this exercise. The headmasters of the 1,020 schools have been trained for self-assessment, which will be used later by the assessors when they visit the schools,” said D Venkateshaiah, managing director of KSQAAC.

“The important factor here is the learning environment, which will be based on the criteria laid down by the RTE Act. For instance, we will look at the shape and sufficiency of classrooms, libraries, play fields, and so on,” he said.

The process would be done in four phases with almost 200-300 schools assessed and accredited in each phase, he added.

The KSQAAC is holding the first test to select the assessors on September 30.

The test will be conducted at district institutes for education training (DIETs).

“We have received 8,000 applications. After the test, we will interview the applicants in October and select the eligible ones,” said S R Chandraiah, junior programme officer, KSQAAC. The quality assurance service may gradually be extended to aided and unaided schools, he added.