Centre plans to launch credit framework, focuson education integration | Latest News India

New Delhi: To ensure a seamless integration of school, higher and vocational education, the government will soon introduce a National Credit Framework (NCrF), officials familiar with the development said.

While a credit-based framework is already in place in technical and higher education, it will be the first time that school and vocational education will be included in it.

A high-level committee constituted last year to develop the framework has finalized its draft report, according to officials at the education ministry.

“The idea is to bring the entire education system, including school education, higher education, and vocational education, to a unified credit platform,” a ministry official said, requesting anonymity. “It means credits will be assigned right from the school to PhD levels and will get deposited at one platform.”

The University Grants Commission, India’s higher education regulator, last year launched an Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) for higher education. The ABC works as a digital repository of credits earned by students. So far, it is limited to higher education.

Under the proposed framework, the ABC will be expanded and linked to DigiLocker, the online digitization service provided by the electronics and IT ministry. Currently, DigiLocker can be used to store academic records of students by Central Board of Secondary Education and other state education boards, besides a host of other government documents.

“The ABC will manage credits earned at all levels including schools education, higher education, technical education, vocational education and training,” said another ministry official, also declining to be named.

The committee has agreed that credits will be assigned on the basis of learning hours from class V to doctoral studies. So far, it is being considered to set total hours of learning per credit at 30. However, the panel is yet to finalise how many credits will be given at each level.

“The learning hours under the NCrF will also include sports, arts, music, vocational training, skilling, field visits, project work, on job training , internship, apprenticeship or experiential learning,” the first official said. “The credit will be assigned subject to the assessment.”

A unified credit system that includes schools will ensure student efforts are recognised at every stage of education across levels in both academic and vocational learning, said educationist Meeta Sengupta.

“This not only builds a bridge between different types of learning, and across institutions, but also supports those students who are not able to maintain full continuity in their studies due to various pressures,” Sengupta said. “The choice to change and to return, is a strong support mechanism to improving attainment rates.”

The NCrF will be launched as a part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which advocates that there should be “no hard separations” between vocational and academic streams. The policy also states that at least 50% of learners through the school and higher education system shall have exposure to vocational education till 2025.

Besides, credits will be assigned to students for online programmes to expand open and distance learning options. The regulator has already allowed students to earn 40% of their required credits through online courses.

“The draft of NCrf will soon be issued in the public domain seeking comments from stakeholders,” said the second official.