Aligning Teacher Education with NAAC Standards: The Role of IQAC
Dr. Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra
Assistant Professor
Academy of Business Administration, Harida, Kuruda, Balasore, 756056
Email: dr.rashmiranjanmohapatra@gmail.com
Abstract
Accelerated educational reforms, regulatory structures and shifting expectations among the public, accreditation has become a major concern in education of the educators. With the growing emphasis on accountability, transparency, and continual improvement, ensuring quality in teacher education is a vital goal. The most important development in higher education in the twenty-first century is the revival of high-quality education. As recommended by regulatory and accrediting agencies especially the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) is essential to the institutionalisation of quality culture in educational establishments. As a strategic tool, IQAC helps in integrating educational objectives with national and international standards of excellence. By supporting outcome-based education, interdisciplinary integration, and conformity with professional teaching standards, IQAC helps teacher to enhance their professional competencies. Through learner-centred pedagogy, hands-on experience, classroom-based training, and internship programs, it ensures productive curriculum transfer resulting in the strengthening aspiring teachers' professional readiness. The paper focusses as how IQAC could enhance educational quality of teacher through facilitating meticulous planning, persistent scrutiny, and evidence-based improvement techniques. IQAC's role in boosting faculty quality through organised professional development programs, instructional creativity, ICT integration, and research capacity building is further explored in this study. The study examines how IQAC might improve management, leadership, and governance at the institutional level by encouraging transparent quality assurance procedures, best practice documentation, and participatory decision-making. A conceptual framework that views IQAC as a perpetual, recurring, and collaborative quality development mechanism in the education of teachers is presented in the paper's conclusion. It makes the case that enhancing IQAC procedures and institutional dedication can greatly raise the calibre and applicability of teacher training, producing capable, thoughtful, and socially conscious educators.
Keywords: Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), Quality Assurance, NAAC Accreditation, ICT integration
