A national credit structure pilot program for grades 6, 9, and 11 will be launched by CBSE.

According to sources quoted by news agency PTI on Wednesday, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) plans to start a National Credit Framework pilot program for classes 6, 9, and 11 in the academic year 2024–2025. The CBSE has also encouraged its affiliate schools to take part in the program.

It is significant to remember that the National Credit Framework (NCrF), which was created in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, UGC, NCERT, CBSE, AICTE, and others, was introduced by the union government in 2023 as part of the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020. The change seeks to provide smooth transitions between formal education and higher education as well as vocational training, enabling students to earn credits from pre-primary to doctoral levels.

To implement the NCrF framework the CBSE has also come out with its draft guidelines.

“The Union Ministry of Education approved the draft NCrF implementation guidelines that the CBSE created and distributed after debating them in several workshops. A pilot application of these rules has been planned in schools connected with the CBSE in classes 6, 9, and 11, with effect from session 2024-2025, in order to further test, develop, and assess their performance in real-world contexts “The agency cited a letter written to school principals by the CBSE.

“Principals of interested schools for this pilot programme are requested to share their contact details through the link (https://forms.gle/5AB2iuxa1k62r2E3A),” the letter stated.

Students can earn credits from classroom teaching learning, laboratory work, projects, sports, performing arts, NCC, social work, vocational education and experiential learning, including relevant experience and professional levels acquired, among others.

“The students may take additional courses/ programs/subjects/projects beyond 40 credits to get additional credits for the same,” the latter added.

“By converting classroom instruction to competency- and learning outcome-based education and learning, this would close the achievement gap in learning outcomes. Thus, in order to receive credit for any kind of learning, the assessment is required, according to the CBSE.
According to the CBSE norms, a student’s earned credits will be placed into their Academic Bank of Credit (ABC), which will be connected to their DigiLocker and APAAR ID.
The National Education Policy 2020 places a strong emphasis on combining general (academic) and vocational education to make education more comprehensive and effective. It also ensures that learners can move both vertically and horizontally between academic and vocational streams.