The ministry of skills development and entrepreneurship has notified draft guidelines for setting up the Academic Bank of Credit (ABC), paving way for implementation and operationalization of the National Credit Framework as envisaged under the National Education Policy 2020.
The Academic Bank of Credit is a digital repository that stores credit information earned by students or learners throughout their educational journey. Under this, all recognised awarding bodies are required to register both their credentials and the students or learners.
The ministry has sought comments on the draft guidelines by April 30 following which it will finalise them.
Under ABC, every student or learner will have an academic bank of credit account, which will be opened and operated by a student/learner, through an unique Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) id, the ministry said in a notification issued on Thursday.
“In this, all credits earned by that student or learner from vocational education and training courses will be deposited, stored, recognized, maintained, accumulated, transferred, validated or redeemed for the purposes of the suitable awards like degree, diploma or certificates by an awarding institution,” it said.
“Students or learners will be assigned credits after successfully completing a qualification, job role, or course of learning that aligns with a National Occupational Standard (NOS), MicroCredential (MC), or qualification. This recognition is based on predefined outcomes at a specified level of the National Credit Framework (NCrF) or National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF), contingent upon the successful assessment of the achieved learning outcomes,” it added.
The National Credit Framework (NCrF), adopted in May 2023, provides for creditisation of all learning including academic, vocational, skills and experiential learning and assignment, accumulation, storage, transfer and redemption of credits, subject to assessments.
It aims at removing distinction between subjects and establishes academic equivalence between vocational and general education while establishing mobility between and within them.
