Plea to form nat'l accreditation body on education

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Educationists said Wednesday a national accreditation body on education should be formed for maintaining quality of education.

They were addressing a seminar, jointly organised by Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and Northern University Bangladesh (NUB), at BIDS conference room in the city.

BIDS director general Shahabuddin Ahmed moderated the programme.

J Ronne Davis, a professor of University of New Orleans of the USA and currently a visiting professor of the NUB, presented the keynote paper on the 'Experience of Accreditation Council in North American Countries and its Application in the Context of Bangladesh.'

The academics also said harmonization of accreditation is required so that local certificates are rightly evaluated in the advanced nations.

Currently, there are two accreditation bodies, one for engineering colleges, which deals with the programmes, and anther for the testing and calibration measurement.

They said such accreditation body should be formed not only for the private universities but also all other major institutions.

Addressing the seminar, the keynote speaker said accreditation is a voluntary process that aims to ensure enduring quality, accountability, and improvement of educational institutions and programmes of study, based on the continuous review process that is conducted by external evaluator from the higher education community.