SARAS is an e-affiliation initiative which has been launched by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), a national education body in India. The primary objective of SARAS is to transform a existing affiliation system into an efficient system characterized by transparency and accountability. The old system of granting affiliation to applicant schools involved repetitive and redundant tasks, which made the process complicated and time consuming. Given the physical nature of data entry and document submission, the process was subject to multiple human intervention and a data trail of a school’s performance could not be tracked over a period of time. In the new system, various repetitive processes have been automated using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques, thereby enabling data driven decisions. This has eliminated numerous redundant tasks previously performed by CBSE officials, reduced the time taken to process applications, and reduced the need for human intervention and the related inconsistencies associated with it. The e-affiliation system also allows for the maintenance of a digital repository of schools. This has benefited over 27,000 schools all over India and across 30 other countries.

https://saras.cbse.gov.in/SARAS

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SARAS is an initiative developed by CBSE for digitizing the affiliation process at the national level. In India, every state has its own board, and consequently, a unique state board affiliation process. Individual states can upgrade their processes and develop their own e-affiliation system inspired from the learnings and strategies adopted by CBSE’ SARAS initiative.

CBSE has developed SARAS after examining the deficiencies in the old examination system, which were made evident by the experience of the global COVID pandemic. Such deficiencies inspired the Board to re-imagine the entire affiliation process, making it resilient and sustainable in the face of future challenges. Some of the key factors contributing to the sustainability of SARAS is as follows -
Firstly, SARAS has been designed to involve processes that can be conducted in a virtual environment to the maximum extent possible. Due to this, CBSE officials and other administrative support staff are not required to operate out of a central location at all times. Therefore, in case of future crises, the affiliation process can function with minimal disruptions.
Secondly, SARAS reduces the need for human interventions, and on that account, the affiliation process is resilient to changing governments or any other changes in the officers who look after the process.

Hence, the virtual nature of SARAS, and the reduced need for human intervention makes the e-affiliation project sustainable.

SARAS empowers schools to take control of their own affiliation process, and brings in transparency and accountability in the affiliation system through automated application processing and public disclosures. In the e-affiliation system, schools self-certify that the information they have provided is correct, and through this, CBSE promotes a sense of trust in the schools that they wish to affiliate themselves with. Besides improved transparency and greater accountability, the digital nature of the affiliation system allows for continuous improvement and increased efficiency because of the genuine knowledge and timely insights that are generated from the data-driven processes governing SARAS. The need for human intervention is also reduced, ensuring a system which is fair and just to all the schools within and beyond the nation.