NCERT Might Soon Get the Power to Award Degree

The National Council for educational Research And Training (NCERT) might soon be awarding degrees related to teacher education.

In a draft bill, the centre has proposed to invest NCERT with the power to award degrees and also design its own courses. It has also been proposed to declare the council as an ‘institution of national importance.’  The draft of NCERT draft bill read, “The council shall have the power to grant degrees, diplomas, certificates and other academic distinctions under this act, which shall be equivalent to such corresponding degrees, diplomas, certificates and other academic distinctions granted by any university or council established or incorporated under any other law for the time being in force.” The draft has been uploaded on the website of the HRD ministry and public feedback has been sought within the next one month.

At present, the council’s Regional Institutes of Education, located in Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Mysore and Shillong, are affiliated to local state government-run universities. If the bill is passed, the council will not have to get its courses approved by the affiliating university. It will also be able to hold its examinations as per its convenience without depending on the university’s schedule.

The bill will continue the present arrangement of an executive council headed by the HRD minister. The executive committee will comprise of the HRD minister as the president, his or her junior minister as the vice-president, the secretary of school education, the council director and joint director, the chairperson of UGC, six eminent people and three NCERT teachers nominated by the president and a bureaucrat each from HRD and Finance ministries.