Paris-Sparsh: Colleges with good NAAC, NBA record to mentor unassessed ones

 

 

To improve the number of colleges getting themselves assessed by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and National Board of Accreditation, Government has floated Mentor-Mentee scheme. Reputed colleges having good record will mentor the institutions which have not done their NAAC or NBA assessment. The Government called the scheme as ‘Paris-Sparsh’ through which the colleges will be guided to get the above assessment done. The Maharashtra Cabinet meeting chaired by Eknath Shinde, Chief Minister after giving serious thought to the issue took this decision. In the recent past, UGC started the scheme PARAMARSH to boost the colleges to get NAAC, NBA assessment done. On the same lines State Government has started Paris-Sparsh.

There are 150 colleges in higher education and 75 institutions in technical education which can act as Mentor. One college is expected to mentor 5 to 7 colleges for NAAC or NBA assessment. The Higher and Technical Education Department of Maharashtra feels, if the scheme goes well, in three years, 15-20 colleges will get their NAAC/NBA assessment done. The mapping of mentor-mentee also will be done. Maharashtra State Faculty Development Academy will train the mentor colleges. These mentor colleges will hold workshops for mentee institutions and guide them to get themselves prepared for the assessment process.

The criterions for mentor colleges are prepared. The colleges having NAAC A or above grade, the colleges which have scored 50% or above in NBA assessment will be included in the list of Mentor colleges. State Advisory Committee, University-level Committee and District-level Committee decided by university will be constituted. The State Advisory Committee will be headed by Principal Secretary of Higher and Technical Education. University level committee will have Vice Chancellor as Chairman while District Level Committee will be headed by Principal of the reputed college having NAAC or NBA accreditation. Government has given approval of Rs 13.50 crore required to run the scheme. Government will provide Rs 9 crore while the share of university will be Rs 4.5 crore At present only 11 per cent of unaided colleges have the accreditation of NAAC in Maharashtra. Of the 2,141 unaided colleges, only 248 have done NAAC accreditation. Percentage of aided colleges having accreditation is quite good, as they have to do it out of fear of losing grants. Though NAAC accreditation is not mandatory, it is one of the important parameters to maintain quality of education in institutions.