By Mehboob Inamdar
Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: All the primary, secondary and higher secondary schools in the district are undergoing self-evaluation under the School Quality Assessment and Assurance Framework (SQAAF).
The schools will be accorded grades on line of higher education institutions like colleges and universities.
It may be noted that higher institutions like senior colleges and universities are accorded grades after the inspections and evaluation from the concerned accreditation board.
The grade and rank received by a higher education institution have great importance for admissions and grades (if applicable). However, there was no system of evaluation for the schools.
The grading is being done with the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) developed the guidelines.
The State Government decided to evaluate the schools to improve their quality and standards. In the first phase, the schools will have to self-evaluate and submit the required documents in support of the claim.
Following this, the School Education Department established the State School Standard Authority (SSSA) to verify documents and inspect schools based on the SQAAF.
The School Standard Authority will accord the grading to schools from A to C, online the line of grades given to the universities and colleges in higher education institutions. The grades will show what kind of quality of education is being given in the schools. The Education Department also asked the schools to display their grades so that students and parents would know it.
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Self-evaluation & cross-checking
Deputy Director of Education (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) Praksh Mukund said that the schools would have to undertake self-evaluation initially.
“The schools need to produce documents to support their evaluation. There will be an external or third party which will cross-check the evaluation of the grade provided in the self-evaluation. The school principal will be held responsible if there are more than 15 per cent points between self-evaluation school and third party assessment scorer,” he said while adding that the objective of the initiative to enhance the quality of education in all the schools and parents and students should have a clear idea of school grades.
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Parameters of SQAAF
There are different important parameters of
the SQAAF for the accreditation and evaluation of educational institutions. They required infrastructure, quality of teaching-learning, child safety, inclusivity, and gender equality.
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There are more than 4450 schools with 8.70 lakh students in the district. Tehsil-wise number of schools are as follows;
Chh-Sambhajinagar; 525
Gangapur----516
Kannad----456
Khuldabad—192
Paithan—414
Phulambri-293
Sillod-483
Soyegaon 141
Vaijapur---444
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Grade Table
The schools will be accorded grades on the basis of points they obtained during the evaluation. The grade and points are as follows;
Grade--- Score Range (%)
A -------- 91 – 100
A---------- 81 – 90
B ---------71 – 80
B----------- 61- – 70
C ---------- 51 – 60
C---------- below 50