India/November 01, 2022/Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/

The new framework will enable students to transfer between schools and boards without the requirement of equivalence certification issued by various school education boards for the purpose of admissions to higher education institutions and employment in central or state government.

 The Education Ministry’s proposed report on the National Credit Framework (NCrF) is in line with the government’s pursuit to integrate academics with vocational and skill-based education. In simple terms, NCrF is an umbrella framework for skilling, re-skilling, up-skilling, accreditation, and evaluation in educational & skilling institutions, through which students can earn credits from regular academic education and also extracurricular activities like re-skilling or up-skilling courses and save them to be used in their future career.

In recent days, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been rooting for provisions to encourage undergraduate programs with multiple entries and exit options.

In such a scenario, a unified credit-based approach has become imperative, prompting the education ministry to come up with the National Credits Framework, which will enable students to digitally deposit their credits in the Academic Bank of Credits (ABC). Basically, the framework is a common mandate that schools, colleges, universities, and training institutions should follow while adopting the credit system.

HOW WILL NCrF BENEFIT STUDENTS?

While most universities in the country follow a Choice Based Credit System (CBCS), through which students can earn credit by completing a particular degree. Now, with the implementation of NCrF, students will get the opportunity to integrate a wide variety of courses, enabling inter-disciplinary and intra-disciplinary education. In a way, NCrF seeks to integrate all frameworks under one umbrella.

The new framework will enable students to transfer between schools and boards without the requirement of equivalence certification issued by various school education boards for the purpose of admissions to higher education institutions and employment in central or state government.

As per the guidelines of the NCrF, students will be required to score at least 40 points for completing a year of school education after putting in 1200 hours of “notional learning hours”.

As the notional learning hours are different from the regular academic learning hours, it is that, apart from the time spent in classroom teaching, it also includes hours spent in a range of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities like sports, yoga, performing arts, music, social work, NCC, vocational education, as well as on the job training, internships or apprenticeships.

This will help students focus not only on basic academic excellence but also help them get skilled-up to be prepared for their future professional careers.

As the NCrF gets implemented, students will get the opportunity to enroll in additional courses/ subjects/ projects in parallel with National Schools and Institutions, as announced by the University Grants Commission (UGC). However, even as the students gain more experience through additional courses, the school board exams remain mandatory and will also be considered while calculating total credit points.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/how-national-credit-framework-can-transform-the-education-system-2291544-2022-10-31