"ACCREDIT" MEANS "TRUST»

Accreditation - comes from the Latin word "Accredit", which means "Trust". Under the current legislation, accreditation is a procedure for assessing the level of quality of an educational organization as a whole or its individual educational programs in order to recognize the compliance of an educational organization or educational program with the requirements and criteria established not below the requirements and criteria defined by the government of the Kyrgyz Republic.

If we translate this definition into practical cases, accreditation is an external assessment of the quality of potential, management efficiency and results of the educational process, in which the shortcomings and advantages of the educational institution identified. The results of accreditation are important for the administration in terms of adjusting plans, eliminating shortcomings, improving the educational process. Teachers need it to improve skills, knowledge and improve the teaching process, and students – to improve the quality of knowledge through participation in the accreditation procedure as part of expert committees. Employers and partners in the accreditation process can also influence training and retraining.

- In the education system there are dramatic shifts towards improving the quality of education, a new culture of quality and to a large extent this is facilitated by the accreditation of educational institutions of higher and secondary professional education, conducted by an independent Agency for accreditation of educational programs and organizations — said at the next meeting of the AAPO, President of the IAC, academician of the national Academy of Sciences Asylbek Aidaraliev, emphasizing the merits in the development of the procedure of independent accreditation of the head of the AAPO, doctor of technical Sciences, Professor Baktybek Ismailov.

In fact, such concepts as the quality of education, quality culture, and accreditation are increasingly firmly included in the everyday life of education.

Recall that in our country the procedure of independent accreditation began in September 2017. Meanwhile, it has been successfully operating in the world for more than a hundred years. For example, in the US, it began to apply more than 130 years ago, and in Europe, it appeared almost 30 years ago and became mandatory after the signing of the Bologna Declaration in 1999.

If you look at the history of the creation of independent accreditation agencies in our country, one of the first beginning of its activity the Agency for accreditation of educational programs and organizations (AAEPO), which was founded in 2014 and in 2016, was recognized by the National accreditation Council. The program of the German development society (GIZ) "Vocational education and employment promotion" has been of great assistance in the establishment and development of AAEPO. With the help of this program, regulatory and methodological bases, standards, criteria, technologies and accreditation procedures were developed. In 2012, after the preliminary training, a pilot accreditation of six educational institutions was carried out, in 2015-2016 – 22 educational institutions. Based on the results of the pilot accreditation, the regulatory and methodological bases, standards, criteria, technologies and accreditation procedures were improved and improved.

In 2017, AAEPO spent 30 accreditation of educational institutions in 134 programs.

In addition, by the end of 2018, the Agency for accreditation of educational programs and organizations carried out independent program accreditation in 52 educational institutions of Kyrgyzstan for 242 educational programs. During the meetings of the Accreditation Council at AAEPO, decisions were made on accreditation of 157 programs of secondary vocational education of 35 colleges and 85 programs of higher professional education of 17 Universities.

Of the 17 higher education institutions, all have been accredited for five years in all programs. Out of 35 colleges, 29 educational institutions have been accredited for all programs for five years. Six colleges passed conditional accreditation for 1 year on two, three and five educational programs with the condition of implementation of recommendations of the expert Commission

The Agency engaged national experts, as well as international experts from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Bulgaria to carry out independent accreditation. The expert commissions included representatives from the academic community in the relevant areas, representatives of the economic sector, civil and student communities.

In the world educational space accreditation is not only a tool to improve the quality and recognition of existing achievements, but also a mechanism to identify the presence of positive trends in the development of educational institutions.

Illustrative example

Based on the results of more than a year and a half of AAEPO activities, it can be noted that the educational institutions that have passed the accreditation procedure have made a significant breakthrough in improving their activities, motivating and stimulating the activities of teachers, encouraging their scientific activities, cooperation with partners and employers, and generally improving the quality of their educational services. They began to look more confident into the future, outlined new strategies to improve their image and status. Therefore, for example, according to the results of monitoring it was established that in Naryn state University named after S. Naamatov carried out quite extensive work on the implementation of the recommendations of the expert Commission:

- developed and implemented a quality management system;

- Improved work with employers and active work with all stakeholders;

- created and started a career Center;

- the student cafe is created and works;

- the questionnaire for the survey of all interested parties was improved in order to improve the quality of the program "Applied Informatics".

No less significant in this aspect is the example of the College of business and natural Sciences "Keiin" international Institute for educational program, where the monitoring found that the institution in order to eliminate the identified shortcomings and implement the recommendations of the expert Commission carried out the following work:

- at the initiative of the management of "Keiin" international Institute, the mission of the College was discussed with the participation of parents, teachers, employers, as well as social partners and adopted by the Pedagogical Council;

- the quality management system is finalized and the regulation on the quality management of the College is adopted;

-the development of the web site of the College has been completed (www.keiin.kg), officially operates in three languages (state, Russian and English);

— organized work and of the contract with the following local social partners: 1) a Memorandum on cooperation between aiyl-okmotu. Ivanovka and educational institution "Keiin" international Institute". 2) Signed contracts with organizations: LLC "Nogin"; LLC "AK Bulut".

- joint work is carried out with the local school, where students of the University annually teach English to local students free of charge.

- a center for advising graduates on employment has been established;

- in 2017, students on the academic mobility program went to the United States, Missouri for 5 months.  In addition, contracts have been signed with the following universities where students can receive scholarships: University of Missouri (USA); University of Kookmin (South Korea); Incheon National University (South Korea); University of Koshin (South Korea); University of Shinhan (South Korea);

- a system of motivation of College teachers.

Approved the regulation on the establishment of personal allowances, bonuses, material aid and bonuses for the employees of the College. Established honorary titles “Best teacher of the year” and “Best researcher of the year” with cash prizes.

Practical proposal

Practice has also shown the need to amend the current legislation in order to improve the activities of both the accreditation procedure and the activities of accreditation agencies. Therefore, taking into account the analysis of the work done in the past period, the AAEPO has prepared its proposals for amendments to the NPA on the issues of independent accreditation:

Make changes to the "procedure for accreditation of educational organizations and programs", approved by the government Of the Kyrgyz Republic on September 29, 2015 № 670:

In "the order of accreditation of the educational organizations and programs” approved by the specified resolution to make the following changes:

— the first paragraph of paragraph 19 to read as follows:

"- According to the results of the external evaluation, the Agency prepares the final report within 15 working days. The final report must contain an assessment of the implementation of State educational standards, as well as accreditation standards and recommendations for improving the educational organization or program. Based on the final report, the Agency within 25 working days makes a decision on accreditation or refusal to accredit an educational organization (program).

- to state the paragraph of the second point 20 in the following edition:

"- About accreditation with remarks (conditional) for a period of 3 years in case of discrepancy according to 1 accreditation standard with the requirement of elimination of the revealed shortcomings. In case of confirmation of the fact of elimination of remarks the term of accreditation can be prolonged to 5 years (in total with term of conditional accreditation), thus the decision on conditional accreditation cannot be made more than two times.".

- about accreditation with remarks (conditional) for a period of 1 year in case of discrepancy on 2 accreditation standards with the requirement of elimination of the revealed shortcomings. In the case of confirmation of the correction, the accreditation period may be extended up to 5 years (in conjunction with a conditional term of accreditation); the decision of conditional accreditation may not be accepted more than two times.

Enter in "the order of recognition of accreditation agencies in the field of education" approved by the specified resolution:

- to state the paragraph of the second point 12 in the following edition:

"- In order to ensure transparency, the Agency should conduct an independent audit of its activities and prepare a report once every three years.

The improvement of the regulatory framework governing the accreditation procedure of accreditation agencies is undoubtedly an integral part of the improvement of the emerging accreditation system, which, according to authoritative persons in the field of education, is an effective mechanism for ensuring the quality and strengthening the reputation of educational organizations, the trust of society and employers. After all, the more trust is the independence and objectivity of the accreditation Agency, the more confidence in the quality of educational services provided by educational organizations. In light of the growing public attention to accreditation procedures, it should be seen as a tool to restore confidence in higher, secondary and primary vocational education.

Seitjan Apyshev, educator, expert, AAEPO