The NCrF: A Framework for Well-Rounded Education

• The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a vision document for India’s education transformation, aiming to move away from colonial mindset.
• The NCrF provides a flexible template for educational institutions offering school, higher, vocational, and skill education.
• The NCrF allows unified accumulation and transfer of credits across multidisciplinary education, including skill education.
• The NCrF offers more flexibility for students, allowing them to earn credits in various activities, provided they undergo an assessment.
• The NCrF aims to help institutions remain flexible and competitive, bridging skill mismatch and ensuring students’ career prospects are not hindered.
• The view that HEIs should only train students to become knowledge producers is outdated and obstinate. HEIs should equip students with skills and competencies needed for emerging roles and selfemployment.
• The NCrF advocates for continuous adaptation and reinventing HEIs in response to changing circumstances.
• The NEP 2020 advocates for the multidisciplinary education and research university (MERU) concept, which should also focus on vocational and skill training to enhance the employability of students.
• Vocational and skill training can be as impactful as knowledge production, and both are important.
• The primary objective of the NCrF is to help HEIs balance vocational and skill training and knowledge-generating academic pursuits.
• The reimagining of higher education curricula by integrating flexibility and multidisciplinary and skill-based courses is necessary to transform India into an economic powerhouse and technological leader.