NCrF: New National Credit Framework for evaluation from Class 5 to PhD, including vocational education

NEW DELHI: The final report of the National Credit Framework (NCrF) is released. The credit framework seeks to enable the integration of academic and vocational domains and components of learning and ensure flexibility and mobility between the two.

The National Credit Framework for school education, higher education and skilling has been jointly developed by the high-level committee comprising of members from the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET), National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT0, Department of Schol Education and Literacy (DoSEL) and Department of Higher Education and (DoHE), Ministry of Education, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Central Board of School Education (CBSE), National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and Directorate General of Training (DGT)

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The National Higher Education Qualifications Framework (NHEQF), a credit system starting from Class 10 to college and university, was designed by the Department of School Education, the Department of Higher Education and the Department of Skill Development. This framework, according to the NCrF report, has divided education into eight levels, beginning with four at the school level, and four at the higher education levels. In higher education, it covers all undergraduate degrees (BA, BSc, BCom, BTech and others) postgraduate degrees (MA, MSc and more), all the way to PhD, while in vocational education and training from level 1 to level 8.

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The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has recommended the development of NCF in four areas -- school education, early childhood care and education (ECCE), teacher education and adult education.

The NCrF provides for assignment, accumulation, storage, transfer and redemption of credits. The final report said it will pave the way for multi-disciplinary education and empowers students through flexibility in choice of courses for choosing their own learning trajectories and programmes and thereby choosing the paths with appropriate career choices, including option for mid-way course corrections.