In order to address issues faced by students with respect to the equivalence certificate issued by different secondary / senior secondary boards for the purpose of admission into higher educational institutions, the ministry of education has now entrusted the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) to prepares a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the same, the Times of India reported.
There is no formal mechanism to determine the equivalence of marks obtained by students of different boards at present. The SOP will ensure that the school education board is following the Right to Education Act, extant National Curriculum Framework (NCF), and is National Education Policy-compliant. It will further ensure that the teachers in schools affiliated to the board possess qualifications as laid down by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), the report said.
The AIU has constituted a 10-member committee consisting of representatives from UGC, AICTE, CBSE, NCERT, NIOS and others for the purpose of drafting the SOP for issue of the equivalence certificate. The first meeting of the committee is scheduled to be held on December 27th, 2021. Once the committee decides on what aspects AIU should look into in order to determine the equivalence of certificates issued by different boards, it will prepare an SOP for the same. Once the SOP is approved and issued by the Ministry of Education, the AIU will invite applications from the Board.
The report states that there are as many as 60 boards in India and the number is growing. Equivalence granted based on fulfilment of the SOP by the AIU will be considered valid at all India level for the purpose of higher education and employment. The ministry of education informed that the provision will be applicable to both government and private school boards.
The AIU has been doing the equivalence of foreign boards like the International Baccalaureate or Cambridge International with Indian boards. However, there is no formal arrangement yet for equivalence of Indian boards. This move is intended to address that gap.
