THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In what could annoy self-financing college managements and ignite protests from the teacher community, the proposed Kerala State Accreditation and Assessment Council (KSAAC) will recommend to the government to make assessment mandatory for colleges in the state except agricultural varsities, apart from introducing a quality check for college teachers. The chairman of the committee set up for the formation of KSAAC by the Kerala State Higher Education Council, Dr A Gnanam, repeated that it would not be a regulatory body but instead be one aimed to ensure quality and a rise in the student population per college. Dr R Jayaprakash, convenor of the committee for setting up KSAAC, said that the committee will propose to the government to make assessment mandatory. The parameters to evaluate the colleges including the self-financing colleges and teachers would be evolved later. When queried, Jayaprakash said that the quality audit would not affect the career prospects of teachers. It would only be a finding of their quality and added that if it becomes controversial, the committee would withdraw the move. He said that the committee will hold meetings with the stake-holders before any recommendations are submitted before the government. ‘’It is just a rough proposal of the structure for KSAAC that we discussed. These are not decisions,’’ he said. A 30-member general council, ten-member executive committee and a dozen or more academic committees would form the structure of the proposed KSAAC. The second meeting of KSAAC held on Monday has proposed five authorities - the general council, executive committee, president, chairman and director - as part of the structure of KSAAC. The general council will include Education Minister as president, vice-chairman of the KSHEC as the vice-president, Higher Education Secretary as ex-officio member, Director of Technical Education, Director of Collegiate Education, nine academicians nominated by the government and 11 vice-chancellors as members. The executive committee will have the chairman of KSAAC, higher education secretary, member-secretary of KSHEC, a nominee of the UGC, two government- nominated educationists and three vice-chancellors as per seniority and the director would be the Member Secretary of the KSAAC. The academic committees will have 7 members each. A panel will be formed and a three-member peer group selected for evaluation. The peer group would be brought from outside and the group would be shuffled constantly as to avoid any possible bias. To evolve the methodology for the assessment, the Deputy Advisor of NAAC, Jagannath Patil has been asked to submit a report. Meanwhile, the committee for setting up KSAAC will submit its report to the KSHEC by the end of June which will be vetted and submitted to the government.
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