Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched the National Credit Framework (NCrF) draft for public consultation.

School students will soon be able to earn credits from academic and non-academic activities which will be stored in the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) just like in higher education with the ministry of education planning to introduce the National Credit Framework (NCrF).

Credit system

• ‘Credit’ is recognition that a learner has completed a prior course of learning, corresponding to a qualification at a given level. For each such prior qualification, the student would have put in a certain volume of institutional or workplace learning, and the more complex a qualification, the greater the volume of learning that would have gone into it. 

• Credits quantify learning outcomes that are subject to valid, reliable methods of assessment. The credit points give learners, employers, and institutions a means of describing and comparing the learning outcomes achieved. The credit points can be calculated as credits attained multiplied with the credit level.

• At present, there is no established credit mechanism for regular school education. However, under the open schooling system, the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) follows a credit system.

• Under the choice based credit system (CBCS), the requirement for awarding a degree or diploma or certificate is prescribed in terms of number of credits to be earned by the students. This framework is being implemented in several universities across States in India.

• The autonomous institutions like IIT/IIMs in India are independent and each institute implements its unique credit system.

The need for a credit system

• The National Education Policy 2020, lays emphasis on the integration of the general (academic) education and vocational education and  training/skilling with provision for seamless horizontal and vertical mobility between the two for lifelong learning. Such integration shall enable desired reforms in the education and skilling systems. 

• In addition, this integration of vocational education and training/skilling programmes into mainstream education at all levels, as is highlighted in NEP 2020, will lead to removal of distinction between general and vocational education and training/skilling while at the same time enable establishing academic equivalence between the two which is the most important way of making the vocational education and training/ skilling aspirational’ for the youth. 

• The integration would also lead to emphasizing the dignity of labour and importance of various vocations. 

• The NEP 2020 also proposes to establish an ‘Academic Bank of Credit’ (ABC) which could digitally store the academic credits earned from recognised institutions so that the degrees can be awarded taking into account credits earned.

Formulation of NCrF

• In November 2021, the government approved the constitution of a High-Level Committee to develop a National Credit Accumulation & Transfer Framework for both vocational and general education. 

• The committee was chaired by Dr. Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, chairperson of National Council of Vocational Education and Training (NCVET). The committee had representation from heads/ senior officials of the ministry of education (including school and higher education), UGC, AICTE, NCERT, NIOS, CBSE, ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE), NCVET and Directorate General of Training (DGT).

• The National Credit Framework (NCrF) has been jointly developed by UGC, AICTE, NCVET, NIOS, CBSE, NCERT, Ministry of Education, DGT, and ministry of skill development to achieve this vision and intent of NEP. 

• NCrF is a comprehensive framework encompassing elementary, school, higher, and vocational education & training, integrating learning on all dimensions — academics, vocational skills and experiential learning including relevant experience and professional levels acquired.

The National Credit Framework (NCrF) is the mother framework which: 

i) Enables seamless integration and coordination across regulators and institutions to enable broad based, multi-disciplinary, holistic education across sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities and sports.

ii) Allows imaginative and flexible curricular structures.

iii) Enables creative combinations of disciplines and integration of vocational education & skilling into academics with multiple entry and exit options. 

Highlights of NCrF:

• The National Credit Framework (NCrF) shall be an inclusive umbrella framework to seamlessly integrate the credits earned through school education, higher education and vocational & skill education. 

• For creditisation and integration of all learning, the NCrF shall encompass the qualification frameworks for higher education, vocational & skill education and school education, namely National Higher Education Qualification Framework (NHEQF), National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) and National School Education Qualification Framework (NSEQF) also popularly known as National Curricular Framework (NCF) respectively. 

• The implementation of NCrF would be a game-changer in realising the vision and intent of National Education Policy 2020 by removing distinction, ensuring flexibility & mobility and establishing academic equivalence between general and vocational education. 

• Such integration shall open numerous options for further progression of students and inter-mingling of school & higher education with vocational education & experiential learning including relevant experience and professional levels acquired, to further enable entry and re-entry from vocational stream to general education and vice-versa, thus mainstreaming the vocational education and skilling. 

• The NCrF provides for assignment, accumulation, storage, transfer and  redemption of credits. 

• It paves way for multidisciplinary education and empowers students through flexibility in choice of courses for choosing their own learning trajectories and programmes, and thereby choose their paths in life with appropriate career choice, including option for mid-way course corrections, according to their talents and interests. 

• NCrF fully enables the students with opportunities to catch up and re-enter the education ecosystem in case they have fallen behind or dropped out at any stage. 

• NCrF also fully supports educational acceleration for students with gifted learning abilities and recognition of prior learning for workforce that has acquired knowledge and skills informally through the traditional family inheritance, work experience or other methods, thereby allowing them progression and mobility into formal education ecosystem.

• There would be only one credit framework for higher education, school education and skill education, namely the National Credit Framework (NCrF) and only single credit system would be operationalised through Academic Bank of Credits (ABC).

• The total Notional Learning Hours for assignment of credits across school education, higher education and vocational education /skilling have been agreed to be 1,200 hours per year for which the students/ learners shall be awarded 40 credits. For the purpose of credit calculations under National Credit Framework (NCrF), 30 notional learning hours will be counted as one Credit. 

• NCrF recognises no hard separation between different areas of learning, that is, arts and sciences, vocational and academic streams, curricular and extra-curricular for the purpose of assignment of credits and credit levels.

• NCrF will encourage internationalisation of education through credit transfer provisions thus enabling wider international equivalence, recognition and acceptance of Indian education and skilling by other countries, promoting exchange with foreign universities and institutions. 

• The credit points may be redeemed as per Academic Bank of Credit (ABC) guidelines for entry or admission in school, higher, technical or vocational education programmes/ courses at multiple levels enabling horizontal and vertical mobility with various lateral entry options.

What is Academic Bank of Credits (ABC)?

• The framework envisages a well-developed Academic Bank of Credits (ABC), encompassing the requirements of academic, vocational and Experiential learning including relevant experience and professional levels acquired. 

• As per NEP 2020, Academic Bank of Credits (ABC), which shall be a national-level facility, will promote the flexibility of the curriculum framework and interdisciplinary/ multidisciplinary academic mobility of students across the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the country with appropriate ‘credit transfer’ mechanism.

• ABC shall enable the integration of multiple disciplines of higher learning leading to the desired learning outcomes including increased creativity, innovation, higher order thinking skills and critical analysis. ABC shall provide significant autonomy to the students by providing an extensive choice of courses for a programme of study, flexibility in curriculum, novel and engaging course options across a number of higher education disciplines/ institutions.

• ‘Academic Bank of Credits’ (ABC) system intends to enable students across the nation in fulfilling their thirst for knowledge by providing academic flexibility to pick and modify their educational paths, link diverse disciplines; and assist them in acquiring the proper foundations and building blocks for their ambitions. 

• The ABC shall be an educational digital platform created to facilitate student’s seamless mobility between or within degree-granting Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and vocational education and training/ skilling through a formal system of credit recognition, credit accumulation, credit transfer, and credit redemption in order to promote distributed and flexible teaching and learning.

• The ABC shall be a repository of all credits earned by a student. 

• According to the Report of the High-Level Inter-Ministerial Committee on National Credit Accumulation and Transfer Framework, while a student can earn up to 40 credits for learning up to 1,200 hours per year, for pre-school up to Class 5 the learning hours range from 800 to 1,000 hours.

• The NCrF credit levels for school education are up to level 4, while for  higher education from Level 4.5. to level 8 (undergraduate levels 4.5, 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0, postgraduate levels 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0, and PhD level 8) and for vocational education and training level 1 to level 8.

• The credit points may be redeemed as per the guidelines of ABC for entry or admission in school, higher, technical or vocational education programmes/ courses at multiple levels enabling horizontal and vertical mobility with various lateral entry options.

Expected outcomes of NCRF for various stakeholders:

1) Students: 

NCrF will ensure flexibility in the duration of study/courses through provisions of multiple entry  and exit/work options as well as pave the path for creditisation of all learning hours, including academic, vocational and experiential learning. It will also give the provision for lifelong learning – anytime, anywhere learning.

It will also help students by:

• Establishing multidisciplinary and holistic education with flexible curricula.

• Removing the hard distinction between the education stream and making study choices respectful, allowing for more than one award in the same period.

• Removing the distinction between arts, science, social sciences, commerce, etc.

• Giving student credits for every academic/ skill/ experience.

• Enhancing the scope of core learning to include foundational and cognitive both.

2) Institutions: 

NCrF will bring about a unification of higher education institutions to promote multidisciplinary education, creating a diverse and students knowledge base. 

It will also help in:

• Promoting stronger collaboration between institutions.

• Making credit mechanism simpler and uniform.

• Increasing focus on research and innovation.

• Promoting digital learning, blended learning, and open distance learning.

• Leveraging the institutional infrastructure.

3) Government: 

NCrF is expected to assist the government to increase the enrolment of students, helping to fulfil the national vision of complementing the demographic dividend and transforming India into the “Skill Capital of the World”.

4) Industry: 

NCrF will allow students to attain NSQF-approved foundational skills developed by industry and be more employable. The provision of micro-credentials will allow integration of quick educational upgradation/ upskilling.

It will also help in:

• Re-Skilling and upskilling of existing employees/engineers.

• Making students more employable by enabling a more holistic design of the study.

• Creating a multi/ cross-sectoral skilled pool of employable youth.

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