The government on Wednesday began the process of public consultations on the National Credit Framework (NCrF) which seeks to integrate academic and vocational domains to ensure flexibility and mobility between the two.
The NCrF has been proposed as part of the National Education Policy (NEP).
The NEP had envisioned the NCrF for opening numerous options for inter-mingling of school and higher education with vocational education and experiential learning, thus mainstreaming skilling and vocational education. It will also enable students who have dropped out of the mainstream education to re-enter the education ecosystem.
Launching the draft for public consultation, Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan said NCrF is a next generation, multidimensional instrument under NEP.
“National Credit Framework is an umbrella framework for skilling, re-skilling, up-skilling, accreditation and evaluation encompassing our people in educational and skilling institutions and workforce,” he said.
The minister appealed to all institutions, schools, higher education and technical institutions, state universities and regulatory authorities/bodies to host the public consultation for National Credit Framework on their website for seeking suggestions from citizens.
The NCrF proposes to seamlessly integrate the credits earned through school education, higher education and vocational and skill education by encompassing the National Higher Education Qualification Framework (NHEQF), National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) and National School Education Qualification Framework (NSEQF).
It also supports educational acceleration for students with gifted learning abilities and recognition of prior learning for the workforce that has acquired knowledge and skills informally through the traditional family inheritance, work experience or other methods.
For students, the NCrF will ensure flexibility in the duration of study or courses through provisions of multiple entries and exit or work options as well as pave the path for creditisation of all learning hours, including academic, vocational and experiential learning. It will remove the hard distinction between the various streams like arts, science, social sciences and commerce.
Published - October 20, 2022 01:09 am IST
