Understanding SQAA Framework for School Success

What is SQAA?

SQAA is an exhaustive self-assessment tool designed to bring quality learning to Indian schools. It is aimed at being implementable, feasible, transparent, and objective, with an underlying measure of acceptability and credibility. SQAA is viewed as a tool for a self-improvement cycle, benchmarked by global standards and rich in local requirements. This framework offers a structured approach for the schools to undertake self- assessment on the dedicated SQAA portal annually.

SQAA framework has 8 distinct domains ,53 sub-domains,84 benchmarks (items) and over 2000 descriptors.

Why is it so relevant?

In 2024, although we are four years into the future after pandemic, the only constant has been the ‘CHANGE’. The pandemic accelerated the transition from VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) to BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible) world because the widespread disruption it caused deemed VUCA insufficient. In the world of education, a quality system/approach refers to a structured framework or set of processes designed to uphold high standards consistently across educational institutions, programs, and services. Its primary objective is to optimize the quality, pertinence, and efficacy of educational offerings. This system in education aims to enhance the overall quality, relevance, and effectiveness of educational provision, while helping students to thrive and achieve their academic potential.

In the world of education, BANI exhibits the following characteristics:

1. Systems are fragile. 
2. People are anxious due to uncertainty.
3. Cause-and-effect relationships are non-linear.
4. Complexity can be overwhelming.

In the world of education, a quality system/approach refers to a structured framework or set of processes designed to uphold high standards consistently across educational institutions, programs, and services. Its primary objective is to optimize the quality, pertinence, and efficacy of educational offerings. This system in education aims to enhance the overall quality, relevance, and effectiveness of educational provision, while helping students to thrive and achieve their academic potential.

Role of Quality system in facing BANI characteristics in the education system

In the opinion of Quality Experts, a robust quality system plays a
key role in helping the schools and other educational institutions
to face the characteristics of the BANI world in a prepared
manner, as described below:

1. Quality systems in education can help identify areas where the educational process might be fragile or prone to breakdowns.
2. Quality systems can improve the processes in education by providing clear standards and guidelines for educators, students and parents. This could help in creating holistic and conducive teaching - learning outcomes which is beyond marks.
3. Quality systems in education can accommodate nonlinear learning processes by implementing flexible assessment methods and personalized learning approaches, so that it could cater to the individual student needs.
4. Quality systems aim to make educational processes more transparent and understandable for all stakeholders, including students, parents, educators, and administrators, thereby making educational experience more contextualized, comprehensible, and meaningful for everyone involved.

In response to the need for a system, CBSE has introduced SQAA (School Quality Assurance and Assessment) with an intention to impart quality education to the learners along with ensuring that the students are provided with an education that prepares them for attaining the standards and benchmarks laid out by the Board. It aspires to lay down a set of standards and best practices as paradigms for attaining individual an institutional excellence.

Core values of SQAA

The following core values were taken into consideration, while designing this Framework. They are:

• Promoting the use of technology
• Importance of research and innovation
• Enhancement in employability skills
• Interdependence

Recommendations

1. To attain comprehensive excellence, schools must adopt an integrated approach that aligns actions across all domains. This entails recognizing the interconnectedness of various aspects, such as academic programs, extracurricular activities, and student support services. By fostering synergy among these domains, schools can optimize resources and efforts to achieve overarching goals and enhance the overall educational experience for students
2. The power of technology is intense, and it transforms a traditional classroom into a dynamic learning environment. Several technologies including robotics, AR & VR, 5G, Bigdata, IoT etc. are available to be used in a school system, However, care must be taken to use these technologies diligently by creating a thorough plan, by assigning the necessary budgets, by investing time and effort in teacher training, and by lastly accessing the effectiveness of these technologies so that these could enhance the learning outcomes and the necessary adjustments in the follow through strategies could be made.
3. The focus on the domains of Leadership, Management and Governance should be enhanced, as strong leadership is essential for change management. School leaders are expected to play an integral role for from vision to reality by championing the desired change.
4. A clear post-assessment roadmap for schools is necessary for effective implementation and continuous improvement. This roadmap should serve as a strategic guidepost, enabling school leaders to evaluate the impact of implemented changes and identify areas for refinement. By systematically evaluating outcomes and soliciting feedback from key stakeholders, schools could improve their practices, fostering a culture of continuous improvements and gradually enhancing the quality of education provided to students.
5. As data could augment predictive students’ academic performance and other outcomes, there is need for leveraging various data mining methods including the machine learning models as they could provide precise and nuanced forecasts for undertaking planned interventions. Also, when these are deployed, it could open a massive trove of educational data that might serve as a rich source of essential information for educators at all levels.
6. A quality system must enable an educator to examine the academic performance of students and ascertain the factors that influence their success or failure in learning. This could call for the utilization of multiple engineering methodologies and machine learning models to forecast the outcomes
7. It is critical for the schools to have a thorough understanding of each component of the Quality System in its individuality and appreciate the importance of documentation as this could help them in servicing the dual objectives of a student-focused and market-oriented education delivery system.

Conclusion

To conclude, to bring the required shift in the education domain through Quality and Excellence, several contemporary frameworks also could be adopted alongside SQAA for better results. However, care must be taken to leverage the frameworks which could complement the efforts and results of the SQAA model of Quality Assurance. The only panacea for the schools in this direction is to consciously make efforts to enhance the overall quality of education provided through a structured system or an approach while prioritizing the milestones in the school’s overall excellence journey.

The insights above were provided by Sanjay Radhakrishnan (Advisor - Strategy & Excellence, Teachmint)

Learn more about Teachmint plans here.