House Panel on Education Recommends Reforms Across Testing, Accreditation

Syllabus: GS2/Education

Context

• The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports tabled its 371st report on the autonomous bodies under the Department of Higher Education.

Major Highlights of the Report

• Performance of NTA: It highlighted the performance of the National Testing Agency (NTA), noting recent irregularities in examinations.
  • Repeated delays and errors in major examinations, including NEET-UG, UGC-NET, CUET, and JEE (Main).
  • It urged that such avoidable errors must not recur. 
• Infrastructure Gaps: Persistent gaps in faculty recruitment and infrastructure, including lack of seed grants for new faculty in central universities and UGC-funded institutions, and constraints in implementing Multiple Entry Multiple Exit programs. 
• Delays in Online Education: It flagged delays in online and distance education approvals for institutions with lower NAAC accreditation scores, urging the UGC to reconsider these restrictions.
• On Accreditation: It highlighted concerns with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), which evaluates higher education institutions.
  • It called for detailing the extent of irregularities uncovered and the corrective steps taken. 
  • Reforms needed such as the Basic Accreditation Framework (BAF) and Maturity Based Graded Levels (MBGL) to ensure a more objective, transparent process with limited scope for discretion.
• On Draft UGC Regulations: It recommends that the draft UGC regulations of January 2025 be referred to the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) for wider stakeholder consultation.
  • The Committee emphasised that these regulations should uphold both national standards and state autonomy.

Recommendations

• Digital Examinations Held by NTA: It recommended NTA to build greater in-house capacity and place renewed emphasis on pen-and-paper testing to reduce the vulnerabilities associated with digital and outsourced exams.
  • It also recommended a nationwide list of blacklisted firms involved in paper-setting and administration to prevent recurrence of lapses.
• Remunerations: It recommends extending the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) to faculty and non-teaching staff in centrally funded institutions, increasing Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) amounts, and implementing the 7th Pay Commission in ICSSR research institutes. 
• Fill Vacancies: It also called for immediate filling of vacancies, implementation of promotions, and appointment of leadership positions across ICSSR research institutions. 
• On Governance: The Committee urged greater participatory decision-making in bodies to preserve its autonomous character.
• Accreditation: Highlighting the challenges of implementing NEP 2020, the Committee stressed the need for faster, streamlined accreditation and evaluation processes. 
• It also recommended measures to regulate the proliferation of private coaching centres and ensure that examination papers reinforce school curricula rather than parallel coaching syllabi.

Source: HT