Background
Access, equity, quality, relevance and employability vis-à-vis value based education are the catch words of the Global Higher Education scenario. The country has been forward to enhance the quality of education so that it does not lag behind others. Quality currently is assessed through agencies such as National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC). The sphere of education in Nagaland has not experienced much improvement in access, equity or quality and, thus far only a handful of colleges have been accredited by NAAC. However, it is heartening to observe that some colleges are earning laurels and contributing positively to the growth of Naga society. The facts remains that the bulk of educational institutions in the state are in need of regular monitoring.
It is disheartening for many colleges whose Letter of Intent (LOI) to NAAC is rejected out rightly as they are not in tune with the qualifying criteria that forms the basis of institutional quality checks. Therefore, there is an urgent need to audit the existing educational institutions, especially in the academic and administrative functioning of Colleges/Autonomous Colleges/Universities. Under the aegis of the Department of Higher Education, Government of Nagaland, an Academic and Administrative Audit (AAA) Committee is floated to monitor and support the quality of individual institutional academic & administrative system throughout the state
The broad outline of AAA will be based on the XII Plan education objectives that must guide central, state and private institutions in the country.
- Higher education in India to be brought in line with and at the frontiers of global trends in higher education and knowledge development.
- Improvement in the overall quality of teaching-learning in an average Higher Education institution in the country.
- Arresting and reversing the trend of group inequalities in access to quality higher education.
- Creation of additional capacity for 10 million more students from eligible age cohort to have access to Higher Education in a demand-driven manner, and
- Undertaken governance and regulatory reforms that focus on institutional autonomy within a framework of accountability and build adaptive capacity of the system.
