Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has announced that NCERT has been granted deemed university status

On September 1, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been designated as a deemed university. The Union Minister made the announcement at a ceremony in the national capital commemorating NCERT's 63rd anniversary. "Today, I'd like to announce that we are granting NCERT the status of deemed university," he stated.

Pradhan also advocated for the merger of Bal Bhavans and Bal Vatika with the NCERT in order to 'give comprehensive education to youngsters.'

NCERT was established in 1961 under the Society Act to help and advise the government on matters pertaining to school education.

According to the provisions, the Central Government, on the suggestion of the UGC, can declare an Institution of Higher Education, other than universities, that works at a very high standard in a certain field of study as a 'Deemed-to-be-university'.

'Deemed-to-be-university' institutions have the academic status and privileges of a university. NCERT will now provide graduate, postgraduate, and doctoral degrees as a deemed university.

Pradhan also opened three laboratories, including one on virtual reality education and another on a teacher training centre. Pradhan highlighted parallels between Chandrayaan-3 and the National Education Policy in his speech, claiming that the new education policy would be as effective as the recent ISRO mission.

"The credit for the successful handling of Chandrayaan-3 should also go to NCERT because it is where the idea for such projects germinates," Pradhan remarked.

"NEP is similar to Chandrayaan-3." It would be a success. Nothing will be able to stop it," he continued.

The NCERT has already constituted a new committee to shape the curriculum and textbooks for classes 3 to 12.

This committee's principal purpose is to match the curriculum with the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE). As part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation, the steering committee was directed by K Kasturirangan.