The Left-leaning Kerala University Teachers’ Association (KUTA) has come out in support of the proposed State Assessment and Accreditation Centre (SAAC) that is all set to be launched next month.
The endorsement by the organisation comes a few days after the pro-United Democratic Front (UDF) Kerala University Teachers Organisation (KUTO) had expressed reservations over the proposed criteria for SAAC.
In a statement, KUTA president A.K. Ampotti and general secretary Biju V. said that SAAC was a potential instrument for institution building to meet academic excellence.
Dual role
Condemning the criticisms against the SAAC as politically motivated, the KUTA stated that the proposed centre would play the dual role of accreditation and monitoring as opposed to the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), which was an accreditation agency.
The SAAC was primed to oversee, assess and uplift all higher educational institutions in the State to make higher education not only qualitative, but inclusive too. While public-funded institutions had remained the strength of the sector, they had often under-performed in the NAAC accreditation process for want of resources, planning and nurturing.
Mentoring
Under the mentoring of the SAAC, every higher educational institution in Kerala could be monitored and supported to meet the national standards of accreditation.
The initiative would also help weed out under-performing and dysfunctional micro-institutions formed by spending crores from the exchequer, the organisation said, adding that the e-governance platform of the SAAC was bound to simplify the process of submission of data pertaining to institutions, they said.
