Dear brilliant young people!

As the curtains draw to a close on the wonderful Silver Jubilee celebrations, here’s another feather in the cap of SFS — NABET accreditation. It is indeed a moment of great pride for each one of you as SFS becomes the first school in North-East India to receive NABET accreditation. Now let’s try to understand what’s NABET and how this accreditation system works. Also, let’s know why getting a NABET accreditation is a huge achievement for all of you at SFS.

What’s NABET?

National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET) is a constituent board of quality council of India which provides accreditation to schools, training course providers, and auditors that that meet the Board’s criteria and also offers a mechanism for their international recognition. NABET has enlarged its scope of activities in recent years and is trying to match its progress with the slogan of QCI i.e. ‘Creating an Eco System for Quality’. With the growing needs of competent personnel and credible vocational training courses in various industry sectors, NABET has been rapidly expanding its scope of services to cater to the needs of the industry. NABET has established a mechanism for the accredited certification of educational organisations, vocational training institutions and for accreditation of skill certification bodies. NABET is offering an accreditation programme for quality school governance in the country with a view to providing a framework for the effective management and delivery of the holistic education programme aimed at the overall development of students. 

School Accreditation by NABET

The school accreditation standard is based on the PDCA (Plan Do Check Act) concept which reflects on the improvement cycle of proposing a change in a process (Plan), implementing the change (Do), measuring the results (Check), and taking appropriate action for further improvement in the systems (Act). 

At the 2nd QCI National Quality Conclave in 2007, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in his address stated that if we have to bring quality in the nation we need to begin at the roots i.e. in schools. The accreditation standard for quality school governance has been developed in the above mentioned context. The standard has three basic sections i.e.

• School governance
• Educational and support processes and
• Performance measurement and improvement.

The sections are interwoven to deliver quality education.

The school accreditation standard:

• Provides educational services that aim to enhance satisfaction level of all the interested parties,
• Addresses requirements that are applicable to all kinds of schools, regardless of type, size, affiliations and nature of educational services provided,
• Provides a basis for assessing and where required, rating the effectiveness of an educational management system,
• Develops quality consciousness among interested parties involved in school activities.
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Focus of the standard:

• Establishing systems to enable learning, self-development and improved performance,

• Providing for holistic development of students,

• Encouraging schools to pursue excellence,

• Complying with statutory and regulatory requirements.

Use of the standard:

• As a self- improvement tool,

• For third party accreditation/certification,

• By statutory and regulatory authorities.

Benefits of school accreditation by NABET

SFS decided to acquire NABET accreditation as seeking accreditation is a major step forward in the school’s quest to become a pathbreaker in school education excellence in the North-East. SFS’s primary aim was to gain credibility and recognition for its commitment to quality educational service through an external evaluation of the school’s educational standards. Moreover, the valuable feedback received through the process of evaluation has helped the school to identify scope for improvement and thereby facilitate necessary changes. Accreditation cultivates an environment of accountability and transparency which helps parents and students make informed educational choices and instils confidence in the stakeholders. Also, accreditation makes students eligible for various scholarships and opens avenues for them in higher educational institutions and good workplaces as accreditation serves as a marker of quality education. Thus, seeking accreditation plays a crucial role in ensuring educational quality, institutional reputation, and providing numerous benefits to students, faculty, and the whole staff.

SFS’s journey towards NABET accreditation

In 2020, St. Francis De Sales School, Guwahati started its journey towards becoming a NABET accredited school. Preparation for accreditation was initiated by the school management with a foolproof plan, including timelines, resource allocation and formation of the core accreditation team within the school. The accreditation team prepared an extensive documentation portfolio which included curriculum documents, assessment methods, student achievement data, facility information and standard operating procedures that portrayed how the school fulfils its promise of providing high quality educational experience. In addition to ensuring that the school’s infrastructure, policies, practices and curriculum are in compliance with accreditation standards, the accreditation team, under the visionary leadership of Principal Fr. George Thomas, led the school in conducting a thorough self-assessment. The school collaborated closely with the agency and actively participated in the successful completion of the assessment visit wherein a team of NABET appointed assessors on a two-day visit to the school examined the core processes, observed classes, interviewed faculty, staff, and students, and assessed the school’s facilities and instructional resources.

The road ahead

Accreditation is an ongoing quality improvement process and not an event wherein improvement activities come to a halt once certification is received. Instead accreditation brings about the added responsibility of always maintaining the quality standards which led to the accreditation in the first place. SFS is always committed to uphold the quality standards of education and the accreditation is another feather in its cap which shall motivate it to do even better.