Centre approves ‘equivalence’ SoPs for state school boards
The SoPs have been issued in order to address difficulties faced by students from different state boards who are pursuing higher education institutions and employment in central or state government.
The Union ministry of education has approved the standard operating procedures (SoPs) to provide ‘equivalence’ certificates to Class 10 and 12 students, issued by different school education boards in India, officials in the know of matter said on Wednesday.
The SoPs have been issued in order to address difficulties faced by students from different state boards who are pursuing higher education institutions and employment in central or state government.The SoPs were approved by the ministry on July 15.
Presently, there are over 60 recognised school education boards in India, including both state/central government and private ones.However, there is no mechanism to provide equivalence to their certificates due to which students have been facing several challenges.
Taking cognisance of the situation, the ministry last year mandated the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), an autonomous body under its higher education department, with the task of granting equivalence to the secondary and senior secondary school certificates. Last year in December, the AIU constituted an expert committee to draft the SoPs.
AIU secretary general Pankaj Mittal said, “There are several private boards which have been operating since a long time in different states and are awarding certificates of Class 10 and 12. In the absence of any mandated organisation to check these private Boards, the authenticity of certificates awarded by them cannot be ascertained. Now, the equivalence certificate issued by AIU will be valid at all India level for the purpose of higher education and employment.”
The AIU issues equivalence certificates to foreign higher education degrees in India. They have also been doing it for foreign education boards like Cambridge and International Baccalaureate (IB).
The AIU has now invited the school education boards in India, including both government and private, to apply for equivalence and submit applications using a prescribed performa available on its website. “The equivalence certificates will also help smoothen the inter-school education board migrations. For instance, if a Haryana board school student would want to join Rajasthan board school, they can easily join if their school education boards have equivalence issued by AIU,” Mittal said.
According to a document shared by AIU, if the boards want to apply for equivalence, they should be established either by the act of Parliament or state legislature or an executive order/notification of the central /state/UT government or set up by bodies/institutions of central/state governments. “The state boards approaching AIU for equivalence will either have to send their proposal through the state government concerned, or have to submit a No Objection Certificate (NoC) from the state government,” the document stated.
Only the boards that comply with the provisions of the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009, follow the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, will be eligible for applying, the document added. The teachers engaged with the schools affiliated by the Boards should possess qualifications as laid down by National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
“The Board shall not indulge in any of the commercial or unethical practices in regard to the prescription of curriculum, textbooks, reading materials, evaluation processes and other classroom practices. The applicant Board shall give an undertaking in self-affidavit format against indulging in such unfair practices,” the SoPs stated.
The SoPs also make a “transparent and credible” assessment process for Class 10 and 12 as a mandatory criteria for the eligibility of Boards to apply.
“Assessment of students in Grade 10 and 12 shall be done as per the provisions of NEP 2020 and extant NCF and also as per directions issued by state/central government from time to time…No attempt, whatsoever, shall be made to inflate the achievement of the students in any manner,” the SoPs stated.
The Boards will also have to make vital information available on their websites along with the list of their affiliated schools/ accreditation centres along with their UDISE code, income and expenditure statement etc.
