The Supreme Court on Wednesday began hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) raising concerns of transparency and fairness in the process of assessment and grading of higher educational institutions conducted by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), a development that came against the backdrop of an ongoing probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into bribery allegations against the body’s officials.
“We wish to go deep into the matter and know how it (NAAC) is functioning,” a bench headed by justice PS Narasimha said as it issued notice on a petition filed by Delhi-based non-governmental organisation Nostro Destino Foundation.
The foundation, represented by senior advocate Shoeb Alam and advocate Manan Verma, said that under the present system of functioning adopted by NAAC, there are concerns of fairness and transparency. The petition relied on two recent developments – the case registered by CBI on February 1 against NAAC officials accused of receiving bribes in the form of cash, gold, laptops and mobile phones from a college in Andhra Pradesh in lieu of giving them top accreditation score of A++, and the removal of 900 assessors after irregularities were spotted in the manner of assessment conducted by them.
The final accreditation draws 70% from the evaluation of the data supplied by the higher educational institutes (HEIs), while the remaining 30% is based on the peer evaluation report.
The petition said that the above instances raise disturbing questions on the efficacy of the accreditation process as despite the removal of the assessors, a reassessment of the institutions evaluated by them was not done.
The bench, also comprising justice Joymalya Bagchi, agreed to examine the issue and sought responses from NAAC, the University Grants Commission, and the ministry of education.
NAAC, set up in 1994, is an autonomous body under UGC that grades colleges and universities on parameters such as curriculum, faculty, infrastructure, research and financial well-being. The grades issued by NAAC range from A++ to C.
The process requires the colleges or universities to submit a self-study report (SSR) giving an exhaustive analysis of the institution’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges. NAAC validates the data by a software-based scrutiny process and seeks clarifications, if required. Following this, the inspection team from NAAC, comprising of a team of academics, evaluate the institution and submit a report that goes into the award of final scores.
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