Parliamentary panel calls for reforms in education sector

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on education, women, children, youth and sports headed by BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Vinay P Sahasrabuddhe has carried out a review of education standards, accreditation process, research, examination reforms and academic environment in India’s higher education institutes.

According to him, efforts need to be intensified to bring more higher education institutes in India under the formal accreditation system. All universities and colleges must be ranked based on how fool proof their examinations are, the parliamentary panel said in its report.

The higher education department informed the committee that only 30% of the universities and 20% of the colleges are in the accreditation system. Thus, there is a long way to go.

Accreditation is a procedure wherein standardisation is done as to what minimum benchmarks are to be created in these institutions. ‘Thus, till a large body of colleges are moving towards this process, the realisation of quality in this sphere will be hard to achieve as it is not mandatory at present,’ the report stated.