Many of the schools affiliated to CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) have begun the accreditation process under the School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Scheme (SQAAS). The Board has made it compulsory for all the affiliated schools within 3 years since circulars were issued to all the schools in 2014.

So far, none of the schools has been accredited, but now many of them have decided to apply and have made the necessary arrangements in this respect. The board has introduced this school accreditation scheme with the objective of setting high standards for schools and to enhance the quality of education, infrastructure and human resources. The schools can find all the related information on the official website of CBSE. However, it is to be noted that accreditation of schools can also be done by other agencies and that the accreditation will be valid for five years.

"Our school has been accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET) last year itself. So, we need not get accredited again with CBSE. It's a very good initiative by the board to improve the quality of schools,” said one of the principals.

Process of accreditation

1. Schools have to register online to enter into the assessment process and provide all the required information including details of students, teachers and their qualification, library and sports facilities, school infrastructure with relevant proof and documents.
2. A team of assessors will make a visit to school and verify all of the claims made in the documents. The assessors will also collect data and opinions from students, teachers, parents and non-teaching staff through well-framed questionnaires.
3. The schools will be provided with a school quality enhancement report (SQER) after the visit and necessary action will be taken for improving the quality of teaching at the school, if needed.
4. Schools scoring 75% or more in the overall performance and minimum of 50% in each domain will be officially declared as accredited by CBSE. Also, the name of the school will be listed on the CBSE website under the official list of accredited schools.
5. The institutions could then use the terminology "affiliated and accredited CBSE school", as opposed to only "affiliated to CBSE".
   

Dual accreditation?

One of the schools applied for the CBSE accreditation despite being accredited to NABET already. The Chairman of school said:

"The CBSE seeks a number of documents on quality starting from fire safety, drinking water, human resources and other activities of the school. Some schools may find it difficult to comply with all the requisites.”