On September 1, the Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan announced that NCERT has been granted deemed university status.
NCERT Granted Deemed University Status
During his address at the 63rd foundation day of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the minister made this announcement.
The NCERT undertakes various activities and programmes, being the apex organization for school education.
This includes the educational research and innovation, curriculum development and development of textual and teaching-learning materials.
Pradhan said, “Today, I want to announce that we are granting the status of deemed to be university to NCERT.”
On this occasion, Pradhan also talked about the merging of Bal Bhavans and Bal Vatika with the NCERT to ‘provide holistic education to children.’
How Did This Happen?
For the unaware, NCERT Established in 1961 under the Society Act, assists and advises the government in the matter of school education.
As per this process, the Central government on the advice of the UGC can declare an Institution of Higher Education, other than universities, working at a very high standard in a specific area of study as an Institution ‘Deemed-to-be-university’.
This declaration opens various options as the institutions that are ‘deemed-to-be-university’ enjoy the academic status and privileges of a university.
With this implementation, NCERT will be able to offer graduate, postgraduate, and doctoral degrees.
Pradhan inaugurated three labs including a lab on virtual reality education and another on a teacher training center, during this event.
While addressing the audience, Pradhan drew parallels between the Chandrayaan-3 and the National Education Policy.
He said that the new education policy would be as successful as the recent ISRO project.
Adding, “The credit for the Chandrayaan-3’s successful handling should also go to NCERT as it is where the idea of such projects germinated.”
“NEP is like Chandrayaan-3. It would be successful. Nothing can stop it,” he said.
In an earlier development, a new committee was formed by the NCERT, which was set to shape the curriculum and textbooks for classes 3 to 12.
Its primary aim is to align the curriculum with the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE).
It is developed under the guidance of the K Kasturirangan-led steering committee as a part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation.
