National Credit Framework | 26 Oct 2022

Why in News?

• The Ministry of Education recently unveiled a draft 'National Credit Framework' (NCrF) which aims to bring the entire education system, from school to university, into the academic 'credit' regime and has sought public view.

What is the National Credit Framework (NCrF)?

• About: The new framework is a part of the National Education Policy.
  • According to the framework, an academic year will be defined by the number of hours a student puts in. Credits will be provided to them accordingly at the end of each academic year.
  • The framework has been formulated under the University Grants Commission (Establishment and Operation of Academic Bank of Credits in Higher Education) Regulations, notified in July 2021.
• Credit System: The report of the high-level committee on the NCrF, put out in public domain, proposes credit levels from class 5 onward itself - which will be credit level 1, going up to credit level 7 and 8 with post-graduation and a doctorate, respectively.
  • Credit levels will increase by 0.5 for every year of learning.
• Earning Credit: The total 'Notional Learning hours in a year' for assignment of Credits will be 1200 hours. A minimum of 40 credits may be earned for 1200 hours of learning every year with 20 credits per semester of six months. Each Credit will come with 30 hours of learning- 30 hours per credit.
  • Notion learning hours in the context of NCrF means time spent not just in classroom teaching, but also in a range of co-curricular and extracurricular activities. The list of such activities includes sports, yoga, performing arts, music, social work, NCC, vocational education, as well as on-the-job training, internships or apprenticeships.
• Easy Entry and Exit: The credit transfer mechanism will also enable a student/ learner to enter and exit the educational ecosystem, both general and vocational, at any point of time. In such cases due weightage is given to work experience gained or any other training undertaken by the learner.
• Due Attention to Co-Curricular Activities: The new credit framework will not have any hard separation between Curricular and Co-Curricular, or various discipline and will count in performance on -classroom teaching/learning/laboratory work/class projects; Sports and games, etc.
• Aadhaar-enabled student registration: An Aadhaar-enabled student registration will take place. After student registration, an Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) account will be opened. The deposit of degree and credits will take place in those accounts. There will be a knowledge locker along the lines of DigiLocker.
• Academic Bank of Credit: The recently introduced Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) for higher education will be expanded to allow for end-to-end management of credits earned from school education onwards and will also include vocational education and trainings, it is envisaged.
• Significance:
  • It would work as 'an umbrella framework for skilling, re-skilling, up-skilling, accreditation & evaluation' encompassing educational & skilling institutions and workforce.
  • The credits for knowledge acquisition, hands-on training, and positive social outcomes will be a key step for achieving 100% literacy in the next 2-3 years and go towards making India a $5 trillion economy.

Source: IE