AIU Entrusted With ‘Equivalence’ SOP For Different Boards

Vinod Kakumanu
Jan. 7, 2022, 1:19 p.m.

Absence of a formal mechanism to determine ‘equivalence’ of scores received by the students of different education boards leads to difficulties for them related to their board-issued ‘equivalence certificates’ for admissions in higher education institutions and for employment as well. Mitigate these difficulties, AIU (Association of Indian Universities) has been entrusted to prepare a SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) in this regard, by the Ministry of Education.

Fulfilment of the SOP will be the basis for granting ‘equivalence.’ The SOP will ensure that the applicant board will comply with the following:

• It follows the RTE (Right to Education) Act

• It follows the extant NCF (National Curriculum Framework)

• It is NEP (National Education Policy) compliant

• The teachers of the board-affiliated schools possess the requisite qualifications as per NCTE (National Council for Teacher Education)

A ten-member committee has been constituted by the AIU, which has representatives from the UGC, AICTE, NCERT, CBSE, and NIOS, among others. Before preparing the SOP, the committee will ascertain the aspects to be looked into by AIU while determining equivalence of certificates issued by different education boards. After the education ministry approves and issues the SOP, AIU will proceed to invite applications from the various boards. The first meeting of the committee is scheduled for December 27, 2021.

As stated by a senior NIOS official, “The AIU, as envisaged in the NEP 2020, is likely to issue guidelines regarding implementing the recommendations of the new NCF and NEP by all school education boards, including a standardised clear-cut scheme/exam by-laws and affiliation process.”