Accreditation of education institutions is being emphasised by various committees constituted by the government, but unreasonable fee fixed by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) is forcing the State government-run polytechnics to opt out of accreditation process.

The NBA has increased the accreditation fee from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 4 lakh, which the authorities feel, is exorbitant and unrealistic.

Earlier, the fee was Rs. 50,000 for two courses and Rs. 50,000 for every additional course.

Now it has been increased to Rs. 4 lakh per course and Rs. 1.5 lakh per every additional course. The courses are accredited and not the colleges by the NBA.

“It is a huge burden on the government polytechnics and drive away institutions from seeking accreditation,” says Ajay Jain, Commissioner, Technical Education.

The NBA should reduce the fee to attract more institutions. “Who would want to pay Rs. 10 lakh for seeking accreditation for two or three courses? Rather, institutes would like to spend on improving infrastructure,” he says agreeing that high fee has been detrimental.

Out of the 115 government polytechnics only 6 are accredited and they got the tag when the fee was less.

Accreditation helps the institutes to garner additional funds from the Government agencies apart from generating funds from the industry.

Stress on improving polytechnics has been growing over the last couple years given the shortage of technical manpower in the country for the concerned industry.

As a part of improving standards, the Central government has recently planned to make accreditation and assessment mandatory by an industry-sponsored agency recognised by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

The industry-sponsored accreditation was discussed at the 60th meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) meeting held recently.

National Board of Accreditation has increased the fee from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 4 lakh

Institutes would rather spend on improving infrastructure: Commissioner, Technical Education