NCERT may become a university!

Call it a golden jubilee gift for the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) which was started in 1961 and has now become India’s top policy-making agency on school education, research and pedagogy. The HRD ministry has set up an expert panel to advise the government to convert the NCERT into a university. Alternatively, it could be awarded a deemed university status. As of now the NCERT is merely a registered society.

Among other things, NCERT produces the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) that outlines the direction of school education to be followed across the country. Its NCF for teacher education is considered to be the Bible that teacher training schools follow. The NCERT also conducts research across education subjects. Its regional centres have been offering B.Ed and M.Ed courses. However, NCERT itself can’t offer degrees for these courses. It has to rely on partnerships with state government universities at present to offer degrees. Only institutions established under acts of Parliament or state legislatures, and deemed universities can offer degrees.

This inability to offer degrees has encumbered NCERT’s growth and hurt its ability to collaborate with top global universities and research centres.