The academic bank of credit (ABC)

Subject: Government Schemes

Context: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil at least 10 schemes on Thursday to make a year of the new National Education Policy.

Concept:

The academic bank of credit (ABC) in higher education, a competency-based assessment for students in Classes 3, 5 and 8, and undergraduate engineering programmes in regional languages.
The University Grants Commission has notified its regulations on ABC.
The credit bank will be a virtual entity which will keep records of academic credits secured by a student
This, consequently, will help students to not only move between institutes while pursuing one degree but also leave a programme before completing it and re-joining it after time off.
Academic Bank of Credit referred to as ABC is a virtual store-house which will keep records of academic credits secured by a student. It is drafted on the lines of the National Academic Depository.
It will function as a commercial bank where students will be the customers and ABC will offer several services to these students. Students will have to open an Academic Bank Account and every account holder would be provided with a unique id and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
. The academic accounts of students will have credits awarded by higher education Institutes to students for the courses they are pursuing. However, ABC will not accept any credit course document directly from the students, and its institutes which will make the deposits in students’ accounts.

NDEAR

A website dedicated to Artificial Intelligence, National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR) and National Education Technology Forum (NETF).
Union Budget 2021-22 has laid a major emphasis on strengthening country’s digital infrastructure for education by announcing setting up of a National Digital Educational Architecture (NDEAR) within the context of a Digital First Mind-set where the Digital Architecture will not only support teaching and learning activities but also educational planning, governance administrative activities of the Centre and the States/ Union Territories.
NDEAR will be single platform that will showcase digital solutions for problems faced in the education sector, NETF is proposed to be an auto nous body that will provide evidence-based
Advice to Central and State Government agencies on technology-based interventions for education.
It will provide diverse education eco-system architecture for development of digital infrastructure, a federated but interoperable system that will ensure autonomy of all stakeholders, especially States and UTs.
NDEAR is being envisioned to be a digital infrastructure for Education. NDEAR will be beneficial for both Centre and States in planning, administering and governing school education as well as to teachers, students and schools for having a seamless digital learning experience.
The institutional structure, governance framework, technology, and data of NDEAR will benefit the entire student and teacher community.